Don't Forget About Me
by StrayHero
Summary: Caduceus gets an alert about a highway accident, with Derek in it, having lost his memories of his life as a surgeon! Angie, her heart broken with unsaid feelings for him, can't seem to find hope. What will they do with the famous duo unable to operate?
1. Amnesia

Alright, so this is my first story. Yeah! Finally had the guts to write a story that has been bothering my mind for days xD Anyway, since this is the first time I've let my imagination go on and on with a story. Well then, enjoy!

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Don't Forget About Me

Chapter 1: Amnesia

A loud grumbled escaped from the world famous surgeon as his serious-faced professional assistant dropped a large pile of paperwork on the desk in front of him with a soft thud. Angie rolled her eyes as he kept grumbling unintelligibly as he wrote on one piece of paper he grabbed from the top of the pile. "I hate all this office work."

"Yeah, I never knew that." Angie replied sarcastically with another roll of her eyes as she grabbed her own pile and sat down on the couch ahead, setting down it down on the long, glassy table.

Angie fidgeted with her fingers, her face turning to a shade of pink as she noticed that they were both alone in the office. She took a deep breath, wanting to start a conversation to stop and distract herself from her pounding heart from beating too much and causing her to be too nervous to do her own paperwork. She was surprised that it didn't leap out of her chest, but stayed stationary to where it belonged.

"Der-"

Suddenly, a loud ring-tone went off, echoing inside the office as Derek hurriedly reached for his phone and answered it, having interrupted Angie from what she was about to talk about. But, as usual, Angie would always eavesdrop on nearby conversations out of habit.

"Hello?" Derek answered, his face turning into a confused expression, as if he never expected to hear the voice on the other line.

Angie couldn't hear what the other person was saying, but sometimes, you could tell what people were talking about just from one person. She tried to lean back casually, her ears perked as she strained to hear what he was saying.

"What? Yeah, I'll head over then." Derek said, scratching the back of his head nervously.

This piqued Angie's interest, wondering who in the world had called him.

"Angie, I'll have to finish this tomorrow. I have somewhere important to go." Derek said as he closed the device shut and stood up from his desk, causing her to jump up at his sudden stand.

"Well, you can't really ditch work now, can you?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him as she turned to face him, curiosity pricking at her like claws.

"I'll just tell Sidney while I head out. I really need to go. See you later." He said as he headed out, closing the softly door behind him. Angie could hear his footsteps fading as he calmly walked towards his destination.

"_Where could he possibly be going?" _She asked herself, but just shook her head as she sat back down and continued with her paperwork. But the question occasionally popped in her mind, her curiosity fueling her imagination as she wondered who he could be meeting up with. The thought that he was ditching work to meet a girl on a date suddenly made her face turn red in anger.

"_Wh-what?" _She thought to herself, blinking in surprise. _"No! I can't possibly be jealous! I'm only angry because… He's ditching work just to go on a date!" _She reassured herself, not believing her heart for one minute that she was jealous about him leaving for a date, something she assumed to herself out of her crazy imagination.

Hours later, Angie sighed as she exited the office, finishing up her and Derek's paperwork out of boredom, simply having nothing else to do while she was still on shift. But right when she was about to exit to head back home, ready to get a good night's sleep, she heard a distant siren out of the open window and the P.A. suddenly turn on.

"_Attention all doctors! A large car accident took place nearby! All injured patients are being sent here! Get ready to treat the patients!" _A voice reported, alarmed and, apparently, frightened by the way the voice was slightly shaking, also seemingly out of breath as if he just ran a few miles.

Angie's eyes widened at the announcement. But Dr. Stiles was out, and the only doctors still in Caduceus were Dr. Chase, Dr. Clarks, and Dr. Kasal! How could they treat all the patients! Angie slowed her breath, trying to calm herself. She had to cool down and act professional once more. What use would she be if she was just panicking?

She hurried to the O.R, seeing Tyler and Leslie already prepping for five patients in a row. Dr. Clarks had another nurse help him, also about to operate with many patients. However, Dr. Kasal seemed to be about to operate on his own, and she hurried over, silently getting ready to help him operate.

After awhile, Sidney and Angie sighed in relief as they began finishing up the last patient. "Sutures." Sidney said, his right palm facing up as he waited for the tools. Angie handed it to him as she stared at the patient intently, her mind still in a frenzy.

"Antibiotic Gel." He said, quickly applying it as she did so. "Bandages." And the operation was complete. "Phew, glad that's over-"Angie began before a nurse barged in, her eyes wide with shock. "Dr. Kasal! Nurse Thompson!" She exclaimed, out of breath. "D-Dr. Stiles was in the car accident!" Angie gasped, her hands cupped to her chest. Sidney narrowed his eyes with concern.

"Bring us to him."

Derek was brought in on a stretcher, and then placed on a bed in one of the rooms. "He doesn't seem to be suffering any external injuries. Vitals are now stable. Thank god he wasn't hurt during the accident. I think he just went unconscious from all the shock." Leslie sighed in relief as she reported to Angie and Sidney, who just barged in, panicking.

Tyler, Stephen, and Leslie stood in the room, looking at the unconscious surgeon who lay on the bed. Angie gave a sigh of relief.

They heard a slight groan from the bed and turned around, facing Derek. He sat up, rubbing his eyes as he looked at everyone. "Der-! I…I mean…Dr. Stiles! I'm so glad you're okay!" Angie stuttered, tears threatening to fall down from her cheeks.

"H-How do you know my name?" Derek asked, raising an eyebrow at Angie curiously.

He looked around at the people around him, wondering why they were even in his room when only one nurse or doctor was needed to check on one patient. He looked from one person, to another: each looking quizzically at him, as if they thought he was joking around with that statement.

"What do you mean? It's me, Angie, your assistant." She replied, shocked at his response. She cupped her hands to her chest and her eyes grew concerned. Something seemed to be wrong with him, and she hoped he would snap out of it soon. "And Tyler, Leslie, Stephen, and Sidney." She continued, hoping to see a spark of recognition in his eyes as she said all of his colleagues' names.

The surgeon raised an eyebrow questioningly at her, blinking several times.

"Assistant? What are you talking about? I don't remember ever meeting any of you in my life."

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**Trauma Center and all characters mentioned in this fan fiction story do NOT belong to me! **

And so ends my first chapter. Sorry for the short chapter, but this is all my imagination would spill out at the moment, but you just wait! One day I will have more come out at once, and you'll see more! So much that it'll take you more than an hour to read! ... Whenever that day comes :] If I see 5 reviews about wanting me to continue, I swear I'll be reading it over with joy! :D And, I'd continue the story with the next chapters ASAP :] Also, if I have made some errors I did not see after some editing, please tell me and show me my errors, so I'll try not to mess up on it again! Anyway, stay tuned for the next chapter! ~


	2. Thinking About You

Guess what! It's chapter two! Chapter twoooooo!~ Sorry, got a little carried away there xD Well, while I was writing this story, I was wondering about a lot of things. I'd like to thanks MyBlueBird for her VERY kind comment and Parsat for showing my mistakes, encouraging me, and supporting me on continuing this story! :) Thank you to you two so much! I've completed this story earlier than I planned because I wanted to finish for both of your sakes! Well, enough of me blabbing, please enjoy this story! :D

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Don't Forget About Me

Chapter 2: Thinking About You

_Tick. Click. Tock. Clack. Tick. Click. Tock. Clack._

The sound of a clock ticking and a pen clicking as it opened and closed could be repeatedly heard echoing around the office, enough to annoy someone to death from hearing both the sounds joining together in an annoying chorus. Fortunately, the nurse ignored the sounds and sighed softly as she finally stopped her annoying clicking on the pen and glared irritably at the paper in front of her; instead annoyed of _that _instead of the sounds.

"_One more piece of paper, Angie, and you can go and check on Derek."_

The thought crossed through her mind, her voice echoing in her head, yet it wasn't really _from_ her. It was hard to explain, and trying to think logically about that voice, she thought she was really going crazy from stress. An annoyed sigh escaped from Angie's lips as the paper was only a third finished, charts on the other patient she had just checked up on. She quickly jotted down the numbers and conditions before setting down her pen and standing up from her desk.

She glared at the stack of finished papers, wondering how she was about to carry this to Sidney and grab another chart to check up on Dr. Stiles. Angie stopped when his name crossed her mind again.

"_Dr. Stiles…"_

The nurse's eyes lowered to the ground, sorrow overwhelming her as she thought about her irresponsible, laid back partner, who always flashed her his happy smile, that she had worked with for over four years.

Four years worth of memories… And he forgot them all. All of them. All those precious times spent together, all those times they spent saving other people's lives. Everything… Gone…It took so long to bring those together, but only a second to shatter those collected pieces…

Angie shook her head, her best attempt to clear her mind as she picked up the stack and headed out, closing the door softly behind her as she left the silent office. Her heels clicked against the tiles underneath her as she walked down the slightly long and deserted hall, her eyes casted downwards, as if seeing past the paperwork to the tiled ground. Angie turned a corner, her eyes still casted downwards, when she suddenly crashed into Leslie, her best friend.

"Ah! Angie, I'm so sorry!" The nurse exclaimed apologetically, immediately helping her friend pick up the pieces of paper that slipped out of Angie's hands when she fell back.

Angie forced a small smile at her friend as she, too, began picking up the pieces of paper that flew everywhere.

"It's alright, Leslie. I was just spacing out for a moment there."

"Huh? Spacing out? That's not like you, Angie." Leslie whispered quietly, stopping in her tracks as she knew the reason why. Sorrow shimmered in the nurse's eyes as she stared at her best friend, who kept silently picking up the papers, her smile wiped completely off of her face.

"Angie, I know that what happened yesterday was shock-"

"Leslie, please, I don't want to talk about it." Angie whispered, cutting her friend off from saying another thing regarding the matter any further. Leslie blinked sadly, hearing the extremely pained voice from her best friend… Her friend was strong and independent, but with what happened yesterday… And to Derek of all people…

The sympathetic eyes turned to a hurt expression before Leslie began picking up the last pieces and replaced her pained expression to a forced smile. She nudged Angie in the shoulder as both stood up.

"I'll help you give this to Sidney, so let's call Tyler after and check up on Derek." She offered quietly as they headed towards Dr. Kasal's office.

"Thanks for your hard work, Angie." Sidney said, taking the paperwork and putting it on his desk. "Ah, Angie, I have a new patient for you."

Angie looked at him with a raised eyebrow, a silent question hung from the expression.

"I'd like to assign you to take care of _Mr._ Stiles until he can be fully discharged or has regained his memories." Sidney said calmly, although the two nurses could hear his emphasis on 'Mr.' and the discomfort in his voice. His outstretched hand held his charts, seeing if she would accept the job, knowing how she must feel about losing her most trusted surgical partner.

"I understand… If you'll excuse us then…" Angie said quietly, grabbing the chart and backing out of the door with Leslie and heading down the hall towards her new patient's room.

"Hold on, I'll call Tyler." Leslie said, already disappearing through a door that led into Dr. Chase's office. A few minutes later, Tyler and Leslie walked out together, hand in hand.

"Heya, Angie. I'd love to come with you guys to see Derek." The usually perky and happy blond haired surgeon said with his usual smile, though it wasn't as large as his usual grin, and it was done half-heartedly. It seemed that many of the staff and close friends were pretty down about Derek's accident…

Angie forced a small smile before the three headed to room 248, where Mr. Stiles was currently resting in. A few minutes later, they reached the door and Angie hesitated for a second before she opened it. She hated to think that Derek still didn't remember them, her heart aching with pain as she remembered the questioning look he casted towards her when she greeted him after the accident…

She wished it was just a horrible nightmare. The door slowly creaked open when she finally snapped out of it, alerting the man that sat on the bed in the room.

"Ah, doctor. Nurses." The brown haired man said with a smile as he shifted his glasses on his face with his hand.

"What brings you to my room today?"

"Doc- I mean, Mr. Stiles, I will be taking care of you until you are ready to be discharged." Angie said quietly, almost calling him Dr. Stiles again, like she _usually _did, like she was _supposed _to refer to him as...

"So, I'm just checking on your condition right now."

Derek smiled and nodded in understanding before he shifted in his bed slightly. "Guess I'll be stuck here for a while, huh?" He asked, looking out of the window. It was a beautiful day outside: the birds chirping, the sky was blue, not a single cloud in the sky, and people were continuing their regular lives.

"What a shame… I should be out and enjoying a day with a girlfriend." He sighed, shaking his head, not noticing Angie jerk slightly in surprise at the statement, then lowered her head a bit in disappointment.

Tyler noticed her expression, but couldn't hold back a grin forming on his face, knowing all along that she had feelings for his best friend, but quickly dropped the expression the moment she lifted her face again, expression deprived from her face.

She grabbed the charts and began looking at it, checking his conditions and his medical record that had been updated just recently.

"Uh, Mr. Stiles? You claim to not remember anything except for your childhood until you reached the age of nineteen and after you woke up from the accident, correct?" Angie asked, biting her lip. The memory loss took out exactly the time of when he became a doctor…

"Yes, I can't remember what I did after that." He said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

It seemed like his personality and habits weren't off, though… That was one relief.

"I see…" Tyler muttered, frowning slightly as Leslie walked over and looked over Angie's shoulder.

"Umm," She began hesitantly, blinking a few times before she continued on.

"Since when was he scheduled for brain surgery?" She whispered to Angie in her ear, noticing that on the bottom, it was said that brain surgery would take place soon. Though it was meant for only Angie to hear, but Tyler had disturbingly sharp ears, heading quickly over after he heard her question.

"What are you talking about? Why would he need brain surgery for?" He asked, noticing that Derek looked at them curiously, oblivious of what they were talking about. He just gave him a reassuring smile before turning his attention back to Angie.

"Well, it says here that he would have to undergo brain surgery because some nerves in his brain shut off, possibly being the cause of his memory loss." She explained quietly as she read the quick description on the bottom.

"Are you freaking kidding me…?" Tyler grumbled under his breath. "And who's operating?"

"…Uh, you."

Silence.

"…What?"

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

"DR. HOFFMAN!" A yell erupted from the hallway. Dr. Hoffman sighed, noticing that yell to be from Dr. Chase.

The yellow-haired surgeon crashed into his office a moment later, an annoyed expression as he breathed heavily, a paper in his hands, nearly crumpled when the surgeon had his grasp on it.

"What the hell is this!" He yelled, pointing at the chart in his hand.

"Well, I can't really see that far, Dr. Chase. What are you so angry about?" The Head of Caduceus asked, apparently tired enough.

"THIS!" The doctor yelled, running forward and slamming it on his desk, a finger jamming at the bottom portion where it mentioned the brain surgery.

"Ah, yes, Derek needs brain surgery. It may trigger his memory faster if we do that, rather than showing him pictures or telling about his past to get it, we're going to try to see what the problem in his brain is. If we manage to find something in there, then maybe he can return to work."

"That enough was shocking enough!" Tyler grumbled before his finger slid down and pointed at his name there. "But what's REALLY ticking me off is WHY I'M THE ONE DOING THE FREAKING SURGERY!" He yelled, really losing it. "And you guys didn't even CARE to freaking TELL me!"

"Dr. Chase, please calm down. We'd rather you do the operation becau-"

"I'm not like Derek! I can't do any type of operation! I'm not a brain specialist either!" He growled, rubbing a hand on his forehead as his face was turning red from all his yelling. "I'M JUST A REGULAR SURGEON!" He yelled, hurting the Director's and his ears when he went overboard. "Get Dr. Kasal or Dr. Clarks or something to do it! What about you? You've had more years of experience, Dr, Hoffman! You have the HEALING TOUCH for GOD'S SAKE!"

"You…" Dr. Hoffman muttered, before looking at Dr. Chase sternly in the eyes, their eyes locked together as if trying to stare the other surgeon down. "Dr. Chase, unless you want to live your life without your best friend never remembering who you were, you're going to do the operation."

"AUUUUUGH! What the HELL!"

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Well, that was a surprise." Leslie said, seeing the angry surgeon burst out of the doors with the charts in his hands, leaving Angie to wait until he came back with it.

Derek looked at them with a questioning stare, wondering why the surgeon was so angry. "Uh, what's wrong with him?"

"Don't worry, he's just overly stressed." Leslie reassured before putting her hands on Angie's shoulders and setting her down on the chair before her before she, too, grabbed another chair and sat down beside her. A deep sighed escaped from both of the nurses' lips at the stress level the Caduceus staff was going through, especially with their ace surgeon not remembering ANYTHING about his life saving people.

Leslie suddenly stood after a long time in silence; the awkward atmosphere was way too much for the usually energetically happy nurse who brought smiles to patients and staffs alike. But now, nothing but a frown was on her lips, her eyes about to tear up with deep sorrow embedded in her eyes. She couldn't take it anymore, seeing her friend sad about losing her surgeon and that her friend didn't even remember them.

The two stared at the nurse, who was staring off into space with a frown and tears threatening to fall from her eyes before she suddenly shook violently, biting her bottom lip as she tried to suppress her tears. She burst out of the door, small streaks of tears could be seen before the door slammed behind her, running off in the hallways.

"_Poor Leslie…"_

Silence once again, this time even more awkward after the sudden departure of Leslie.

"Uh, how about I take you out for a walk around the hospital? You must be dying to stretch your legs out a bit." Angie suggested, smiling warmly at him, but her emerald eyes were dimmed, sorrow overtaking her.

"Yes, I'd love that." Derek replied, returning the gesture, but his chocolate brown eyes lively and happy, oblivious to all the emotions that he would have spotted from his assistant.

The nurse gently helped him out of his bed and took him out of Caduceus's front doors after she signed at the front desk on what she was doing with the patient. She WAS assigned to him, after all.

The nurse walked beside the patient around the hospital, taking in the fine day that was given to the world at that moment, that time. It was a peaceful day, not like one of those hectic days Caduceus had, especially with the incident yesterday and the time when the GUILT outbreaks happened many times before.

But during those times, Derek devoted himself to the dying patients, curing them as he headed on to reach one goal: To wipe off the so-called 'incurable diseases' away from the world, to give hope to those that were casted off as 'done for', to bring them the light and happiness of life.

THAT, was his goal. The happiness of his patients… The smiles and laughter from his staffs, family, friends… He became a doctor for a reason, and he was going to keep that promise he made many years ago…

But, that was gone. The surgeon was no more. He no longer remembered those feelings, those words he had said, those experienced he had with all his co-workers who had laughed until they cried with him. The thought sent a chill down Angie's spine, her whole body shaking from that thought.

Was it really all over? Would he forever continue on his life without knowing who they were? Without remember the experience in those feelings he had gone through with all those times he saved those patients? The gratitude and love they showed him after he had loyally continued to save patient after patient?

He was the one who saved THE WORLD from GUILT, from Delphi's stupid, foolish ideals. Even his medical mentors looked up to this surgeon, who saved their lives countless times when they were sick.

Heck, he even brought another surgeon to Caduceus to the path of success, and he looked up to him. Which reminded Angie, he was going to come visit after one of the staff members broke the news to him.

But now what? Of course, this couldn't get out or else some other crazy psycho from Delphi still alive would try to revive GUILT, taking advantage of Derek's absence from curing any diseases.

Angie's thoughts were interrupted when the patient noticed that she had stopped in her tracks as she was thinking all of this. Derek turned around and hurried back, limping slightly since he did get a bit hurt from the accident.

"Nurse, are you all right?" A warm hand gently grabbed her arm, spreading warmth through her body. A light pink blush slowly appeared on the Angie's face when she snapped out of her thoughts and looked at him.

This was her world famous surgical partner that she had, unashamedly, had deep feelings for. But, he was no longer Dr. Derek Stiles now… Hopefully, he would remember one day. When that day came, his co-workers would he crying with joy, hugging and patting his back, happy that he was his normal self once more. They would have a celebration, smiling and laughing like they usually did during work. Then, they would begin saving patients lives once more.

And maybe, just maybe, she would be able to tell him what she really felt deep inside her heart.

Angie smiled at the surgeon, showing him that she was all right before continuing to walk with him around once more, feelings tears sting in her eyes when she felt his hand moved away and reality fall down on her shoulders. She took in a large, shuddering breath as she tried to blink away the tears without him noticing anything. Without him knowing that she was crying, because of him.

"_I don't know if I can continue on like this anymore…Continue living when he doesn't remember anything. Maybe fate decided to tear us apart… Maybe I was never meant to feel like this towards my wonderful surgical partner."_

Angie closed her eyes for a moment, still walking with Derek. The voice that she had been talking in her mind before now plaguing her mind again, making her heart ache even more than it already was.

"_But, if a miracle did happen and led him back to his old life, maybe then, can you tell him. Never lose hope, Angie… He will come back one day. Just like how he came back every time to ease your aching heart in the past. He will come back again to ease your pain you feel now. He will come back to stand at your side again."_

Taking in reassurance from the voice that comforted her inside her head, she let out a large, tiring sigh before placing a smile on her face and walking back inside Caduceus, the place where most people thought of it as a place filled with love, life, feelings, and hope for those who had come here, and survived by the hands of a wonderful doctor who gave them the true meaning of happiness of life.

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Okay, time to do this again...: **All characters mentioned in this story are not from me, but from ATLUS. Thank you very much.**

Okay then! Thanks to Parsat's advice, I added some detail... I think :P I made this story a bit longer than the first, and I'm ready to start on my next one. Uh...yeah, I said START. :X ANYWAY, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter! Keep waiting for the next one. I'll see you next time!~


	3. Visitors

Its chapter three, yeah! Thanks for all the reviews, I really love it when I get some feedback on what they think about my story :] Italicized words except thoughts = dream :D Enjoy!~

**EDIT: **The last chapter three was too much alike to Hostage, so now I tossed it out and revised it!

Well, here's a revised version. Sorry 'bout the wait! Hopefully this one won't have any resemblance. Enjoy!

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Don't Forget About Me

Chapter 3: Visitors

"I'll be right back, so you can go ahead and rest." A blond haired nurse said to her patient with a small smile as she helped the man gently get back in his bed. One of the usual rooms occupied by a patient. Room248 at 7:45 in the morning, on what seemed to be another normal day.

"Of course… Take your time." The brown-haired patient replied with a small voice, seemingly having difficulty talking since his lack of speaking except short replies back to the nurse. He had no visitors come in during this whole time. It's been a whole month, and no one, except the nurse, had stepped foot into his room to visit him while he was conscious.

He never knew about the visits he had while he was asleep, Dr. Hoffman, the Dr. Kasal twins, Dr. Chase, and Dr. Clarks speaking about his condition and planning the surgery for his brain.

That was, until a small knock was sounded at the door.

"Come in?" Derek replied with a questioning tone, wondering why the nurse would knock on the door before she entered.

To Derek's surprise, instead of Nurse Angie entering his room, another woman timidly stepped inside, closing the door silently behind her as she approached him slowly.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

_Click. Clack. Click. Clack._

Angie's heels clicked against the tile as she headed back to Derek's room, a new set of charts in her hands on the update of his condition. A soft sigh escaped from her lips as exhaustion took over her, making her want to just go in their office, lock the door, and just plop down on the couch.

However, the thought of Derek waiting in the hospital room stopped her, and she continued to walk towards the usually silent room. Angie took in a large breath before turning the handle and greeting her former-surgical partner, now patient.

"Hey Der- Whoa…"

Angie stopped, mentally slapping herself in the face when her mouth dropped wide open; a shocked expression crossing her face, her sentence trailing off. A woman had tears dripping down her cheeks silently as she bent over Derek, kissing him lightly on the cheek. They both looked up at her in surprise, making Angie's face turn slightly red in embarrassment for just interrupting something important.

"Uh… I…uh… I'm sorry! Tell me when you're finished!" Angie exclaimed, running quickly back out of the room and slammed the door behind her, breathing out heavily.

"_Who was that…? Was that the woman he was supposed to meet after that phone call?"_ Angie thought, her eyes casted downwards, not noticing the blond-haired surgeon coming towards her with a disappointed sigh. _"I didn't even see her face all that well…"_

"_Then… that must mean…"_

"Oh, heya Angie! You ready?"

"_By the action she…she just did in there…"_

"Uh… Angie? You there? Hellooooo?"

"_She's must be his…"_

"Angie? Angie! You all right?"

"_His girlfriend."_

With that final, heartbreaking thought, Angie collapsed into Tyler's arms as he was shaking her shoulders, yelling out her name as nurses and surgeons turned and watched the commotion, shock and uneasiness stirring in them when they saw the, usually tough and professional, nurse faint.

"ANGIE!"

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Much to the brown-haired man's surprise, it was not the nurse, but rather, another woman with matching hair and eyes as his, tears already forming in her eyes as she looked at the man laid back on the hospital bed.

"Ah… Derek…" She said in a whispery voice, shuffling forward and sitting softly down on the chair beside the bed, her purse plopping down beside the legs of the chair.

"…Mom…?" He asked, his eyes widening in shock as he recognized the features of his mother's face when she was closer. "What are you doing here…?"

"To visit my sick son, of course…" Elizabeth replied softly, tears slowly spilling out of her eyes, dripping off of her chin and plopping silently on her grey skirt.

"I don't understand… why can't I remember anything after the age of nineteen and before the car accident?" He murmured, glaring at the white blanket that covered his exhausted body. Derek gripped onto them tightly, his knuckles turning slightly white at the pressure put on them.

"I wouldn't be here, and I would be doing what I was usually doing… whatever it was…" Derek muttered, a sigh escaping from him when he couldn't even remember what his occupation was, if he even had a job.

"I was informed by the doctor that you have amnesia… and they plan on doing brain surgery on you to check on your brain to make sure the nerves in it have something to do with it. If it does, they might be able to bring back your memory…" She said, hope sparkling in her shining eyes as she wiped away the tears.

Derek just stared back up at the white ceiling, unable to bear having to go through all this. Suddenly, he heard his mother stand and looked to see her gently kiss him on the cheek, when the door opened, the nurse coming in with a widely opened mouth before leaving quickly while apologizing.

"…I don't think she saw your face clearly… She probably thought you were a girlfriend of mine or something… I'll have to clear it up with her later…"

"Seems like it…" His mother said with a small chuckle. "Listen Derek, that woman cares about you a lot… please treat her well." She whispered as she sat back down on her chair.

"What do you mean?" Derek asked, looking at his mom with a raised eyebrow.

Elizabeth smiled, putting a finger to her lips. "I won't say anything yet, but you will find out sooner or later… hopefully you will regain your memories." She said as she picked up her purse and laid it on her lap. She stared at it, tears forming from the corners of her eyes again as she remembered another man... Alexander Stiles, to be exact.

"Derek… please… don't leave me…" She began sobbing again, her hands covering her mouth, slightly muffling her words. "Don't… leave me…like Alexander did."

A sad smile crossed his face as he reached for her hand and held onto it tightly, before releasing it and smiling at her. "Don't worry… I won't die from something like this… It's just amnesia, and they'll fix me soon." He said, chuckling a bit.

His mother nodded before wiping her tears away, standing back up. "I have to go now… I'll come visit again when I can…" She said, slowly leaving the room as the door closed softly behind her as she left.

They had not heard the commotion that had been going on earlier, and knew nothing about what was happening to the doctor and two nurses.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Two emerald eyes opened halfway slowly, a blurry of white was all she could she as she began to regain consciousness. Suddenly, something greenish and yellowish appeared, mixing with the white blurriness from either side of her. Suddenly, everything began clearing, slowly, but surely.

"Angie? You awake?" A soft voice asked; she could hear a crack in her voice as she placed a hand on her arm, shaking it softly.

"Leslie…?" Angie asked groggily, noticing her best friend when her vision cleared. Tyler stood on her left side, relief washing over him as he saw her awaken.

"You scared the hell outta me for a moment out there!" Tyler grumbled, placing a hand on his head. "You suddenly collapsed out of nowhere when you wouldn't respond to me! It was outright terrifying!"

Two playful smacks hit him in the arm as both the nurses punched him and laughed.

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just so stressed out." Angie said, sighing as she sat up, wincing a bit from the stiffness in her body.

"S'alright, you've been overworking yourself a lot… Especially with Derek an' all." Tyler replied, rubbing his 'injured' arm that the two nurses punched. "But we have to perform brain surgery on Derek soon." He said, beginning to frown again.

"Oh…that's right…" Angie said, glancing down at the white sheets that had been placed on her.

"Holy crap, I'm scared." Tyler admitted, shaking his head.

"Holy crap, you're human, you SHOULD be scared." Leslie joked with a roll of her eyes at the surgeon's comment.

Angie chuckled along, but inside, she could feel her chest ache with pain. She didn't want to witness Derek's surgery and find that it either failed or he didn't regain his memories. It just wasn't something she wanted to see. Without her realizing it, tears began to form in the corner of her eyes.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Drops of tears spilled onto the white sheets silently and unknowingly to the man who sat on his bed, staring blankly at the wall, tears streaming down his eyes.

"_Father…"_

Suddenly, pain shot through him, causing him to gasp in surprise and clench his head.

"Wh-What's going on…?" He asked to no one in particular, feeling the unbearable pain consume him and causing him to breathe heavily. "Augh…" Derek grabbed onto the sheets tightly with his other hand, hoping the pain would quickly cease and leave him alone.

Well, he did get what he wanted as his pupils rolled up his eyes and he collapsed on the bed, his sheets on the floor from his thrashing. The moment someone would come in, they would know he had just gone through some struggling before he was consumed by darkness.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

The nurse and surgeon noticed tears spilling out of Angie's eyes.

"See what you do, Tyler!" Leslie exclaimed, raising her arms up in the air. "You just caused Angie to be depressed again!"

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" He yelled out apologetically as Leslie gave him a smack on his arm…again.

"It okay…" Angie said, smiling as she wiped her tears. "We should get going… Sidney asked us to get to the office before the operation.

It was a difficult task, yes, but they had to do it in order to see him smile, laugh, joke, operate, and talk with them once more. The one thing they wished to have back… The one thing they wished that hadn't even been taken away from them.

Now that future was placed on their hands as they sighed and entered Dr. Hoffman's office. Sidney, as usual, was present in the office as well as he looked up from staring at the ground to the three.

"Now… let's discuss about Mr. Derek Stiles' surgery today... Dr. Chase, you will be operating. Leslie, Angie, you are to assist him. Director Hoffman and I will accompany you to operate on him as well." He explained calmly, though they could see the concern and nervousness in his eyes.

"Victor will come with serums and advanced tools and watch over the operation just in case." Sidney said, folding his arms. "With that said, his operation will begin at twelve o' clock… which is in thirty minutes."

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"Don't worry about me! I'll be fine alone!" The green-haired surgeon laughed at the woman who frowned at him.

"But its America! I know you've been there once, but you were accompanied by Dr. Stiles and Angie!" She replied, shaking her head. "You won't make it!"

"Really, don't worry!" He said, rolling his ruby eyes. "A staff member from Caduceus will pick me up from the airport."

"Fine, fine…" She grumbled, sighing in defeat. "Have a safe trip, Doctor. Remember, we're already short on doctors, so please return as soon as Dr. Stiles has recovered… and tell them I said 'Hi.'" She said before turning and leaving, waving at the doctor before disappearing in a tent.

The surgeon chuckled before he got into the tan jeep and tried to settle down as the car jumped around crazily, hitting bumps everywhere. He felt queasy after ten minutes of driving and was glad when a plane was stationed there, waiting for him to enter.

"I see… I understand. Yes, I'm on the first plane right now." The surgeon said as he rested again the seat, sighing in exhaustion. "I can't believe that happened to Dr. Stiles…" He muttered to himself, shaking his head in sorrow. "I'll do what I can for him…"

Just as he said that, the plane went downwards as it began to slow down, then to a halt. He walked out, thanking the soldier who piloted, and walked to the airport he was dropped off at. The surgeon sighed as he walked to the next plane, knowing that he had to go through another plane ride before getting to America.

"Now I kind of know how Dr. Stiles feels when he gets on planes…" He mused to himself as he seated himself comfortably against the seat, sitting next to a sleeping woman who held onto her child tightly.

He smiled, the child reminding him of his brother who had died when he was a kid. A tear trickled down his cheek as he closed his eyes and dozed off in a matter of seconds.

* * *

And so ends this short chapter :D Big thanks to TCGeek for letting me use the names Elizabeth and Alexander Stiles as Derek's parent's names! :D

–clapping and cheering in the background-

I bet you guys know who's arriving, huh? I mentioned him in the first chapter [Not his name, but that he would be visiting] :D If you don't know who it is….then wait till next chapter!

Oh well, see you in the next chapter!~


	4. An Unexpected Turn

CHAPTER FOUR!~ :D Personally, I really thought that I would never get this far. Really. But thanks to all of you guys reading, I am continuing! Woot! :) I managed with all the stuff going thanks to you guys :)

Thanks for pointing those out for me, PXLight!~ And I swear I didn't steal anything from anyone else D:

Oh yeah, remember how I said that I could've added more in chapter three? Well, I'm adding it in here so yeah :) Enough of me blabbing, here's chapter four!

* * *

Don't Forget About Me

Chapter 4: An Unexpected Turn

"It's good to be back in America again…" Stepping out of the plane was a dark-skinned green-haired man, wearing a lab coat and carrying a luggage in his hand. A black Integra drove up near the airport and stopped, the engine still on as a blond-haired man came out and waved to him.

"Heya! Been a while, Adel!" The surgeon grinned at his old colleague. "Get in here, I gotta get back soon to perform surgery!"

"You're the same as usual, Dr. Chase." The surgeon greeted back as he hurried to the car and put his luggage in the trunk before climbing into the passenger seat. "Have you always had this car? I never thought you'd go with this type."

"I finally got 'er after things were slowin' down at work." Tyler replied as he stepped on the gas and the car started moving again. "Anyway, how were things in Costigar?"

"Its fine, the war isn't over… guerrillas just keep coming to attack." He replied sullenly. "But thanks to the equipment and medications Caduceus send over to us, we're able to treat our patient well."

"Good to hear…. Except about the war." Tyler said, frowning a bit. "So… Sidney told you about the news, correct?"

"Yes… About Dr. Stiles, right?" Adel asked, frowning as he stared out the window. Cars, buildings, and people passed by, living their lives normally as usual. Well, they should be happy. GUILT was eradicated after all.

"Mhmm. And I have to perform on him in-" He began with a sigh before he looked at the digital time in his clock. "Oh crap…" He muttered as he suddenly sped up.

"Uh, Dr Chase!" Adel asked, having been surprised at the sudden change in speed and was practically attached to the seat. "Why have you sped up?"

"I have to perform brain surgery on him in 8 minutes!" He nearly shouted out his reply. "And prepping takes at least 3 minutes for me!"

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Memories flooded in on Derek as he slept, pain attacking his chest as he breathed heavily in his deep sleep as he dreamt. No, as he was living in his nightmare.

_A brown haired woman cried her heart out as she rested her arms and head on a dying man's chest, who hardly breathed at all, the only thing telling them he was alive was the beeping monitor beside him. She buried her face deeper into his chest, hoping to hear his heart loud and clear, but just heart faint, distant heartbeats, which fueled her tears. _

_ Beep….Beep….Beep..._

_ "Is dad going to die?"A little boy asked, tears streaking down his face as well, his light brown hair ruffled messy. The doctors walked to the boy, shame of defeat washing over their face as they nodded their heads in sympathy._

_ "Why? Can't you cure him?" Little Derek asked as he glared up at the two surgeons, who held tightly onto the charts in their hands. _

"_I'm sorry, son, but-" The taller surgeon began before he was cut off, noticing the monitor going slower and slower._

_Beep…. Beep… Beep…_

"_No…! I don't wait him to die…!" He yelled, fresh tears now coming down faster. The doctors' eyes widened in shock at his yell, which echoed around the little room. "Why! Why can't the doctors cure him!" He continued his wailing, causing his mother to look up at him with red, puffy eyes from crying. She had cried when he had collapsed, and during the ride to the hospital in the ambulance._

"_Please…" Derek pleaded, falling to his knees as he closed his eyes, trying to block the stem of tears as they dripped off of his chin and landed on the white tiles below him. His hair covered his face, his tears, but they could feel and hear his pain before the last monotone sound came._

"_Please, save my dad!"_

_ Beeeeeeeeeeep…... _

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"Why didn't you just send another staff member to pick up Dr. Tulba?" Leslie asked Sidney as they waited for their return.

"He needs to calm down and regain his composure. We can't have him perform the surgery with shaking hands. Also, Dr. Tulba has agreed to help with the operation, and so has another person… and Tyler is going to pick her up as well."

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"Aww man! Hurry up!" Tyler shouted out the window as another doctor came rushing towards the car and all but threw open the door and charged inside. The car began to speed up immediately again.

"Calm down, Tyler. It's not like his vitals are unstable right now…" The silver-haired doctor replied with a roll of her silver eyes.

"But Naomi!" Tyler whined, his eyes trained on the road. "Anything can happen! And I don't want to risk anything."

"That's true…" She muttered before she noticed Adel sitting up front. "How rude of me. I haven't introduced myself to the other surgeon that will be helping." She said with a smile. "Naomi Kimishima, nice to meet you."

Adel looked back and smiled as well. "Adel Tulba, nice to be acquainted with you as well." He greeted before Naomi looked up and grinned.

"See Tyler? We made it in time. We still have four minutes left to prep up for surgery."

"Yeah, yeah, now let's get going." Tyler grumbled as he turned off his car and dashed into Caduceus, the other two running to keep up.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Derek sat up in surprise as he woke up from his dream, sweat on his eyebrows and a shaking hand placed over his chest. He breathed out heavily, as if waking from a nightmare... A nightmare of the past.

_"Still dreaming about that, eh, Derek?" _He thought before propping himself against his pillow and letting out a sigh. The door creaked open, and he immediately turned his attention to the nurse.

"Hey Mr. Stiles." Angie said quietly with a small smile. "Your operation will begin in three minutes, we'll be taking you now."

"Understood." He sighed before standing up and following her.

The moment they got to Sidney and Leslie, he was put on another bed, waiting for them to finish prepping. Fear stepped inside his heart once more when it finally processed through his mind: He was going to go through brain surgery.

_"Don't worry." _A voice said in an encouraging whisper in his ear. It felt like the wind was talking as he felt the small breeze against his ear. _"I'm with you, son. You won't die… Experienced doctors are there to help you."_

"Thank you…" Derek whispered back, knowing it was his father. It was as if his father was watching him from above, wearing an encouraging smile to his son, who he had left many years ago. Tears trickled down his eyes as he felt the soft presence disappear from his side, but he knew his father was still there, watching him with a soft smile... from elsewhere.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"Ah, you guys are here." Sidney said with a smile as he greeted the three surgeons. "Prep up for surgery, we begin in three minutes."

Everyone heard footsteps and turned to see Director Hoffman and Stephen with a serious expression.

"I'm counting on all six of you…" Was all he whispered before he, Dr. Clarks, and Sidney went to the observation room.

"Six? There's only five of us." Tyler said, raising an eyebrow as he looked at Naomi, Adel, Angie, and Leslie.

"That's 'cuz I'm joining you." A new voice joined, sounding a bit grumpy.

They turned and gasped in unison when they saw the blue-haired head of R&D stand before them with a sigh.

"Whoa, Victor! Why're you comin'?" Tyler asked, opening his eyes wide.

"To see if anything abnormal happens, dumbass!" He growled, rolling his eyes. "Let's just prep for surgery, hurry up!"

With that, everyone immediately did as told, getting ready to perform surgery before Victor kicked their asses.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"Shouldn't we be in the operation room to help them?" Stephen asked, a hand over his head as he was overwhelmed with concern and stress.

"I… I can't do anything for Derek…" Dr. Hoffman replied, his eyes casted downwards.

"But, you have the Healing Tou-" Sidney began.

"NO!" Dr. Hoffman yelled, surprising the two surgeons. "I just… No… I can perform surgery on strangers, but not on someone who I've been acquainted with… I'm a coward… I can't perform on him." He replied, shaking his head.

"….." The two surgeons stared on in silence, watching the six colleagues roll in Derek to the operating room, and gave a small greeting to two more surgeons who had joined them in the observation room.

"Seems you've come to see what will happen, Greg, Cybil." Sidney said quietly as the two came in hand-in-hand.

"I want to see…What will happen to my former apprentice."

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"Anesthesia is taking effect." Angie said after she injected the serum into Derek, who had closed his eyes shortly after.

"Well then… Let's begin." Tyler said through his mask as he, Adel, and Naomi walked forward. Angie stood beside Naomi with a tray of tools while Leslie stood in between Adel and Tyler, having two trays of tools on either side of her. Victor stood behind Angie, watching closely.

"Beginning the operation…" Tyler mumbled as his palm opened up with confidence. "Antibiotic Gel."

Leslie handed him the gel, which he applied onto Derek's forehead and handed it back to Leslie.

"Scalpel." A scalpel was placed on his hand and he made a precise cut on where he applied the gel. Adel and Naomi stood at ready with a scalpel in hand. The moment he cut it open, blood began pouring out, which Adel immediately began draining, having already known his role in this operation.

As the blood cleared, they looked in and saw his brain, which seemed to look normal.

"They did say to cut here, right?" Tyler asked, raising an eyebrow. "The nerve that's messed up should be here…" He began, before his eyes shot open in surprise. "Found it." He muttered as he noticed the slight different colored dying nerves in his brain.

"This must be it, then." Naomi said, his silver eyes scanning the spot. Aneurysms suddenly appeared, making them all sigh, frustrated.

"Great…" He muttered before injecting the serum and cutting out the aneurysm. He grabbed the forceps and connected them together before suturing it. More aneurysm appeared, more and at a larger area. Adel and Naomi joined in on taking the aneurysm out, working quickly but precisely. The aneurysm subsided, and they wait to see if anything would pop up.

"Alright, I think that's it, now we'll check out-" Tyler began before they heard the beeping of the monitor change. They looked over with surprise, their eyes wide open as they stared at the monitor.

It was going slower than it was earlier, and his vital had dropped significantly.

_Beep…... Beep… _

"What? We just extracted the aneurysms…and that was never mentioned in here!" Tyler exclaimed, shocked. "What's causing him to be unstable?" He asked, feeling a bit shaky as he injected the syringe to bring up his vitals.

"Wait…. No way…" Angie said, her emerald eyes opened wide in surprise, tears welling up from the edges.

"Angie!" Naomi exclaimed, shocked at the nurse's sudden change of mood. "What's the matter!"

"Doctor…" She began, shaking her head. "Chiral Reaction readings detected…" She replied in a mutter. "But the patterns are unfamiliar…"

"WHAT!" The others roared in astonishment, turning towards Angie, who was stone-faced and staring at the monitor. They hadn't heard the last thing she said.

"How… But… GUILT should've been COMPLETELY eradicated by now!" Leslie gasped, her eyes wide in shock, just like everyone else's. "Even Neo-GUILT was defeated!"

"No… this CAN'T be POSSIBLE!" Tyler yelled, as he immediately began injecting the syringe again.

His vitals were slowly going down and they looked at the observation room. The surgeons inside were wide open with shock, having heard the conversation. They immediately rushed out and into the operating room, masks put on as they rushed in, careful not to run anything over though.

"No… This can't be happening." Dr. Hoffman growled as he shook his head. "Dr. Chase, close him up."

"What!" Tyler asked, anger rising from him. "I CAN'T CLOSE HIM UP! WE HAVE TO FREAKING ERADICATE THE GUILT INSIDE OF HIM!" He yelled, his face turning to a deep red in anger as the blood rushed inside him.

"CLOSE HIM UP NOW!" Dr. Hoffman roared commandingly, causing everyone in the room flinch. Dr. Hoffman rarely yelled like that as he glared at Dr. Chase, who whisked his eyes away with a defeated yet pissed off glare.

"Tch…" Tyler grabbed the sutures and closed him up, applying antibiotic gel and bandaging him up.

"Angie, Leslie, take him back to his room. Everyone else, we'll go discuss this in the council room. You two, join us once you've finished." Dr. Hoffman said, cooling down once more as he casually walked out, before stopping and looking at Cybil and Greg.

"I ask that you two come as well…" Were his final words before the doors swung closed behind him quietly.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Derek felt the pain on his chest increase and felt dizzy, even though they had injected the anesthesia in him. No, he wasn't feeling the pain of the cold scalpel opening his brain up, he was feeling an inner pain, he didn't know what.

"_What's with this…? I thought they injected a medicine to keep me from feeling pain during surgery…" _Derek thought, feeling a burning sensation in him before he blacked out from his thoughts and back to his nightmare from the past... his regret.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Tyler paced around in the room, fuming as his face was in a deep shade of red.

"Dr. Chase, sit down." Director Hoffman said with an irritated sigh.

"Just give me some time to cool down…" Tyler replied, rubbing a hand on his temple. "Just until Leslie and Angie come back…" He said, continuing his pacing.

The other occupants sat there silently, either watching Dr. Chase pace around the room angrily, staring at their hands, table, through the window, or just staring blankly at the wall. They all waited for the two nurses, dreading to know what would happen to Derek.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Angie and Leslie escorted Derek carefully through the halls, careful not to run into anything. A sad silent atmosphere hung around the trio, causing the doctors and nurses to stare at the three sadly, knowing that their ace surgeon was in danger, although they knew nothing about the GUILT they had detected in him.

They quietly rolled him into his room, room 248, and put him in his bed gently, watching him twitch a bit in his sleep, sweat forming in his brows. They quietly exited and headed towards the conference room, where the other doctors waited tensely in the uncomfortable atmosphere.

Angie and Leslie quietly entered the room, everyone turning to look at them from the small creaking sound coming from the wooden door.

"Ah, finally, now, we'll start discussing. Please take a seat, you two." Dr. Hoffman said calmly. Leslie sat next to Tyler as Angie sat between Leslie and Cybil.

"Angie, what GUILT is it?" Dr. Hoffman asked once they were all seated and ready to start the discussion.

"I know this will be hard to believe…" Angie began, lowering her eyes to the table. "…but I don't know what GUILT is in Derek…" She whispered the last part.

"What do you mean!" Tyler asked, standing up quickly and knocking his chair over, causing everyone to flinch and look their way, except Angie, who kept staring at the conference table.

"Dr. Chase, let her speak. Don't interrupt on every statement that gets put out, or else I will send you out." Dr. Hoffman warned, his eyes glaring at him once more.

"Yes, sir…" Tyler grumbled, immediately grabbing the chair up and sitting back down next to Leslie.

"Please explain, Angie." Dr. Hoffman said calmly. All the doctors here, except Naomi and Adel and Derek who wasn't there, had gotten along well with each other through the GUILT outbreaks and were on first name basis, except to Hoffman, which they all referred to as Dr. Hoffman instead of Robert. Only Sidney was comfortable enough to call him by his first name.

"Well, there were… unfamiliar… and new Chiral Patterns…. I couldn't define what type of GUILT it was… but it showed positive that it was GUILT." Angie said quietly, her eyes never straying from the clear glassy table in front of her.

Silence filled the air once more as everyone tried to process through what they heard from their ears, trying to find out what the hell she was talking about.

And it didn't seem to process through fully for them all.

"Huh?" Everyone, besides Dr. Hoffman, asked as they looked at Angie with a raised eyebrow.

"Wait… what do you mean? We've been working together for four years, Angie. We've been going against GUILT for three of those years, and now there's a NEW GUILT!" Tyler asked, his eyebrow twitching as he tried to deny that Derek had GUILT in him.

"That's exactly what I mean, Tyler." Angie said as she finally took her gaze off of the table and glared at Tyler. She was pissed that he had repeated the awful truth, and she didn't want to hear it again, because she, too, wanted to go against the words that came out of her mouth.

"Well… Where is the GUILT taking hold of?" Stephen asked, running hand through his brown hair nervously. He was an experienced surgeon, but any operation dealing with a close colleague or friend would make anyone nervous.

"I… I actually don't know…" Angie muttered, shaking her head. "Either because there was drama going on in there for me not to notice..." She began, flashing a glare at Tyler and Dr. Hoffman, who responded with a sigh. "… or because the readings couldn't pinpoint where the GUILT is."

"How's that possible? Our machines are top class." Leslie said, frowning deeply.

"It's a new strain of GUILT… maybe it dictates the mind…" Greg said, finally speaking up.

"Then the readings would've found and said it was there, right?" Cybil asked, raising an eyebrow.

"…Or it could be possible that the damn parasite is taking over his whole body through his brain nerves." Victor said quietly, folding his arms as his eyes were looking out of the window.

Silence followed his possible suggestion, shock overwhelming them. Yes…. It was a possibility that the GUILT was taking over him… But there wasn't any proof, it could be anything…

"Maybe the machine is whacked?" Tyler asked, wincing when he felt a punch hit him in his arm.

"Then it wouldn't have told Angie it was positive!" Leslie exclaimed, shaking her head at her idiotic partner.

"We'll schedule another test operation on Derek tomorrow. Victor, we want you to find this GUILT's pattern, attacks, and a serum or way to defeat it." Dr. Hoffman said as he stood up, eyes tiredly glancing at all of them. He nodded to Sidney before he left, headed towards his office.

"Alright then, everyone." Sidney said as he, too, stood up from his seat. "I bet you guys have operations planned right now. Don't breathe a word of Derek's condition to anyone. If his mother comes and asks to visit, then send her to me and I'll deal with it. Thanks for coming Naomi, Greg, Cybil, Adel."

"I hope that you will come again tomorrow for his surgery. You are all dismissed." Sidney said, walking out as he heard footsteps behind him, confirming that his colleagues were filing out after him.

He just didn't know that two more people stayed inside the room, staring at the glass table.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Derek awoke from his nightmare once more, shaking his head as sweat dripping off of his chin and onto the sheets. Although the nightmare began to fade away, he felt an incredible mass of pain on his forehead and chest. He rubbed his temple as the pain increased, trying to calm it down a bit and dull the pain.

Hopefully someone was coming in soon so he could tell them to fix it. He stared at the blanket, wondering about one person in particular.

"_Hmm… Where's Nurse Angie?" _He thought, looking around. Usually he found her sitting there, staring at him when he awoke from his sleep, which surprised her and caused her to turn red instantly. He chuckled as he remembered her reaction.

"_Haha… she's so cute when she does that."_ He thought amusingly, then stopped and frowned, wondering what the hell he had just said right there. He shook his head and sat up carefully, trying not to stir up more pain from his body.

"_What's causing all this pain….? I thought I just had amnesia…."_ Derek thought as he sighed and picked up his glasses and put them on; his room began to look more clear as he slid them on his eyes.

"_Hopefully she comes soon…." _He thought, his hand clutching the front of his shirt as pain flared up again. _"Because I don't think I'll make it without any type of medicine to held stop this pain…"_

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"What are you doing? Don't you have an operation schedule in ten minutes?" Angie asked, looking over at the distressed surgeon after the door closed behind Naomi.

"And what about you? You have to check on Derek." Tyler replied, standing up and walking to the door, not looking at her. "Take good care of him. Call me immediately if his vitals become unstable." He opened the door and walked out, sounding professional when he knew that a very important life was on the line.

Angie sighed, standing up and walking out after him and headed down the hall in the opposite direction. Instead of heading straight to room 248, she went into thei- no, _her _office and sat down on the couch wearily. She looked at the stack of paperwork on Derek's desk and immediately noticed that those were the same papers that were there before the accident.

Apparently, no one cared to take it and finish it.

Angie just left it there, tears welling up her eyes once more as she wished that this was all a bad dream, that he would come into the office and laugh, saying that he was joking…. That it was all just a little joke…

"_No, I can't be thinking like that."_ Angie said, shaking her head. _ "It's not a dream, Angie… Its reality and you're going to help bring him back."_ She stood from her desk and headed to the room of the man she was constantly thinking about.

She opened the door, expecting to see the patient sleeping soundly after the operation, but she was wrong.

Derek sat there; sweat dripping off of his face and onto the sheets as his hand clutched the front of his shirt, breathing heavily.

"N-Nurse Angie…" He greeted with a weak smile. "I'm glad… you finally… came in…" He said, before his eyes rolled up until the whites of his eyes showed and his eyelids closed. He fell back onto the bed with a soft thud and drifted out of consciousness.

Angie's emerald eyes widened and she immediately dialed a number on her phone as she injected a syringe into his arm, trying to keep his vitals up and stable. The phone kept ringing as she kept it on speaker by the bed, her mind going blank as she panicked, not knowing what to do.

This was Angie's _weakness_, her _flaw _as a nurse. Yeah, she was a tough, professional nurse who ranked higher than those who worked longer than her and were older, but everyone has a weakness. _**Everyone**__._ No matter how tough they are, no matter how much armor they put around themselves, they have a weakness, though hard to find.

And _this _was one her weakness. She couldn't do anything or remember her medical knowledge when she saw someone she was close to start do lose consciousness or close to dying. She would panic and not know what to do, despite having been through this with strangers and doing everything perfectly calm and easily.

_Brriiiing….. Brriiiing…._

"C'mon…" Angie muttered as heard the phone dial and tried to figure out what to do next after filling up syringe after syringe and injecting it into his arm.

"_Sorry, but you have reached the voicemail of Tyler Chase-"_

Angie immediately cut it off and mentally whammed her face against an imaginary desk.

"Crap! I forgot Tyler is in the middle of an operation!" Angie growled, wanting to really slam her face against a desk, but giving herself a concussion wouldn't help Derek. She knew that all of the surgeons were busy, but she remembered two surgeons in particular who didn't have any operations scheduled today….

Angie grabbed the phone and dialed another number.

"_Hello?" _An exhausted voice was greeted through the other line.

"Sorry to disturb you after taking care of Derek's rounds." Angie began, breathless, as if she just ran a few miles. "But Derek is in critical condition! Please, come to room 248!"

"_On my way!" _Adel said immediately at the mention of Derek.

Click.

She dialed another number quickly and jammed her finger on the 'call' button, surprised that it didn't break. Ah, when she was in trouble, items become victims when needed to do something quickly…

She kept an eye on the monitor, which slowly decreased, but stayed stable when she kept injecting syringes. Sooner or later, she would have to do something else… but because of her panicked state, she forgot _what _to do.

"_Hello?"_ A female voice answered this time, and she didn't seem quite exhausted as Adel was.

"Naomi, please head to room 248. I need your help!" Was all Angie said before she clicked her phone shut, and whirled around as she saw Adel in the doorway, breathing heavily from running from the second floor to the fourth floor by stairs.

Naomi popped in quickly afterwards, having been on the same floor, but a bit distanced from the room.

Naomi looked grimly at the monitor, which she noticed was going down, even though Angie kept injecting syringes into his arm with shaking fingers.

"It must be the cause of the GUILT." Naomi whispered as she walked closer to the bed to get a better look at Derek's pained sleeping face.

"He's even having a hard time sleeping… Something must be plaguing his dreams…. Like regret from the past or something." Naomi said, frowning slightly at the words that came out of her mouth. "He might be having nightmares…. Which could also be an effect from the GUILT."

"A GUILT causing nightmares?" Adel asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It must be kind of like the case Linda Reid had…" Angie said sorrowfully, remembering the first GUILT operation she and Derek had operated in Hope Hospital. "She had wanted to suicide thanks to GUILT, so Derek must be having a similar case, but with nightmares. So maybe the GUILT might be in his brain…"

"Or, like I said, it could be regret from the past. And if we mixed our theories, it could be that the GUILT is using the regret he had back then to haunt him… Like how GUILT had made Linda Reid suicidal by the high school entrance exams and her parents."

"Yes, that may be the case." Adel agreed after hearing the theories.

"So, does that mean we should operate on his brain again?" Angie asked, raising an eyebrow at Naomi.

"Yes… It's most likely there, especially since he's being plagued, well, as my theory, with abnormal nightmares… Not to mention the sudden aneurysm attack in his brain during the operation."

"I'll alert Tyler after he gets out of his operation." Angie said as she watched the two surgeons swiftly bring up his vitals with the syringes and replaced the bandage on his forehead. Angie really felt like an idiot when she forgot about the bandage on his forehead.

_"Attention Doctors and Nurses, get ready for a large number of patients coming in from the train station nearby. There has been a GUILT outbreak. I repeat: there has been a GUILT outbreak!" _

The three of them stared blankly at the speaker in the room, their mouths and eyes opened in shock.

"A GUILT OUTBREAK!" Angie yelled out in surprise, rubbing her temple as if that was the cause of her hearing things. "But… we eradicated it last year… It… It should've been done…. Delphi is supposed to be gone…"

Naomi narrowed her eyes suspiciously, hoping it wasn't that man who had done this….

After Derek was stabilized, they rushed out and almost knocked over Sidney.

"Grab type one GUILT hazard gear!" Sidney barked out the order, eyes wide with shock and surprise as well. He ordered the other surgeons as well, and Tyler and Leslie, who had just gotten out of surgery.

"No… not again…" Greg said, shaking his head as he put a hand on his forehead. He still stayed there as another surgeon was taking care of Hope Hospital. Cybil pulled him into a hug, where he rested his head against her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her.

"Medical Terrorism again…" Angie whispered sadly as she put her gear on. "Derek did so much to eradicate GUILT… and he did it twice."

"But now… He won't be able to help us…" Victor said, who had joined the conversation and pulled his gear on. "I want to witness this myself… see if they have the same problem as Derek."

Everyone rushed out of the hospital and into ambulances. Many nurses stayed behind to watch the patients, but most of the surgeon and nurses experienced with GUILT and have been working on the parasite disease since the first or second time went, fear clearly clutching their heart.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Hahaha… that should keep them busy." A dark haired man said as he wore a black robe that was long enough to partially drag on the floor. He undressed, throwing the robe off of him and wore casual jeans and a white collar shirt. His arms revealed tan skin before he placed a blue jacket over him.

"Time to pay _him _a visit." He chuckled with a grin as he walked out of the isolated mansion.

"Shouldn't we accompany you, Sir?" A man asked as he stepped out, dressed in the black robe.

"No, stay here. I will return." He said with a grin before turning and getting into a car and driving off.

It was a thirty minute drive from the mansion to his destination, but he soon arrived, pulling his car into the parking lot just as the mass loads of ambulances roared off, their sirens yelling. He grinned, amusement trickling in his dark eyes.

He turned off his engine and walked inside, putting a hand in his pockets and cradling something small inside. The front was empty, due to all the surgeons and nurses either out getting to the GUILT outbreak or the nurses tending to other patients.

A walked confidently to the room he wanted to get to, and he soon spotted it with a devilish grin that flashed his perfect white teeth. Room 248… Just what he was looking for.

He walked in and smiled as he looked at the pained, exhausted sleeping expression of the brown-haired man that lay silently on the bed, hardly breathing.

"Hahaha…. Derek Stiles…" He whispered as he closed the door behind him and walked to the side of the bed.

"My grandfather and brother's arch nemesis. And also, my own… My father was foolish, not picking up their ideals and instead, choosing to live a normal life with the pain of _medicine_." He spat out the last word, though still grinning at the man who had a hand clutched to his chest and the other to his forehead.

He took out a vial that he had been cradling in his pocket, revealing a white liquid substance inside.

"Hahaha…. With this, you will feel the exhilaration of GUILT…" He said as he shook the vial of the white substance. "…Of Apostle."

He popped the lid open and opened Derek's mouth open with his other hand and smiled. He laughed once more as the white substance slid through the vial and into Derek's mouth, which went down his throat.

Once the bottle was empty, he put the cap back on and began to walk away, before he turned back and grinned.

"I should introduce myself to you… since you will become a son and servant of Adam…" He said with a smile. "I am Hector von Rivera... The man who will revive Delphi once more…"

* * *

Wooo!~ That's chapter four! And here comes the suspense! D

**I do not own the characters in this story for they belong to Atlus. Except the character Hector von Rivera. I created him, therefore he is mine D And the new GUILT, Apostle, that is also mine for I have created it as well ;D I just need to... make its attacks, looks, and how its defeated... Auugh. **

Ahem, now! This is over 5,000 words! Whooo! :D Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this story, and I hope this chapter had no resemblance to any other story that has been created.

Anyway, see you guys in the next chapter!


	5. Fragment Memories

Not much to say except that my stories will be greatly delayed and that I'm currently working on my new oneshot fanfic. :) This contains some spoilers for Trauma Center Under the Knife and maybe some for TC:UTK2. Yeah, I only played the DS Trauma Center games. Please enjoy!

* * *

Don't Forget About Me

Chapter 5: Fragment Memories

"This scene… looks all too familiar." Sidney whispered as he placed one shaky foot forward out of the ambulance filled with surgical equipment. All the surgeons and nurses that stepped out let out a shaky, surprised breath as they saw the collapsed people splayed all over the street and sidewalk. A familiar scene to all those who were there standing, watching the people suffer from a disease that was supposed to be long gone.

Those times were supposed to be put to the past, a mere memory in their presence, yet here they were, experiencing it once more.

"I must be going crazy… All of this just has to be an illusion…" Tyler whispered as he closed his eyes, trying to block out the image of the GUILT-ridden patients. A particular patient coming to mind: his younger sister Amy.

Leslie just shook her head as Sidney finally began to bark out orders again.

"Tyler, Leslie, you will be taking five patient who were tested positive with Paraskevi!" He yelled, pointing to the oncoming stretchers with the Paraskevi patients, pushed by the E.M.T as they loaded them near an ambulance.

"Adel, Nurse-" He began before two more ambulances pulled up, both having different crests from all the others, but familiar: Elysium and Hope Hospital.

Heather Ross and other surgeons and nurses came out of their respectable ambulances, smiling at the gawking Caduceus staff besides Greg and Cybil.

"We came to help." Heather said with a grin.

"We called for experienced surgeons and nurses from our hospital and asked for help from Elysium while we were in the ambulances." Greg said, putting his hands in his lab coat. "Hopefully you'll accept?"

"We'll take it happily." Sidney said with a grin before his expression turned serious again. "Heather, you will assist Adel with the Kyriaki patients being transported to that ambulance." He said, pointing to the ambulance Adel had gotten out of earlier.

"Naomi and Angie… Since you two are very experienced with this, you will handle all the Savato patients." Sidney said in an apologetic tone as he pointed to the other ambulance with patients in critical condition. They all nodded as they hurried off to treat the patients.

"Dr. Clarks, please take care of the Deftera patients." Sidney said as he also showed him the ambulance before the experienced surgeon nodded and rushed off. "Greg, Cybil, please take care of the Triti patients."

"Are you freaking KIDDING me!" Greg asked, rubbing a hand over his forehead. "I just HATE that STUPID GUILT! Its stupid patterns and annoying ass regeneration…" He grumbled before Cybil just rolled her eyes and nodded to Sidney before she pushed Greg to the patients.

Sidney shook his head sympathetically at his brother before he looked at the elder surgeon, Robert Hoffman.

"Sir, will you take care of the Tetar-" He began, trying to giving the elder surgeon the smaller and easier load.

"No, I will take care of Pempti… I want to defeat the GUILT that killed Richard…" He said, remembering his friend as he laid on his deathbed, dying an honorable death… Sacrificing himself for the sake of humankind's future.

"Understood, sir." Sidney said as he turned to the Tetarti patients. "All right then… I'm counting on you all…"

OoOoOoOoOo

Hector von Rivera returned back to his mansion, wearing his black robe once more as he sat at the table his brother, Heinrich, had once sat upon.

"Cheers, to a new brother, once an arch nemesis of GUILT, Derek Stiles!" He grinned, raising his wine glass as his subordinates followed his lead. "Although he is not here, _yet,_ he is undergoing the test in whether he will join us, and I have high expectations for this man." He said with a grin.

A loud cheering erupted from the minions, which Hector shortly joined in after, laughing.

"May I ask a question, Sir?" A minion asked, all eyes turning to him. Hector nodded, letting the man ask his question.

"How come you only gave Derek Stiles the new GUILT, Apostle, but not to the people in the outbreak we created?" He asked, murmurs erupting as they too wondered about the same thing.

"Let me ask _you _something, my dear subordinate." He said with a grin. "Do you know what 'Apostle' means?"

"The twelve main subordinates of 'The Lord'?" He asked, referring to the Bible.

"Exactly, and do you know what sign represents them?" Hector continued, his grin growing wider as he noticed a sparkle of recognition in the young man's eyes.

"A star!" He exclaimed, causing Hector to chuckle.

"Yes, and Derek Stiles uses the 'Healing Touch', a disgraceful power given to those unfortunate, which stopped my grandfather, Adam, and brother, Heinrich, plans from becoming fruitful. The 'Healing Touch' focuses its power through a star." He said, shaking his head.

"Apostle is meant to stop him from using the 'Healing Touch'." Hector continued, a small laugh coming from him.

Another cheer erupted, but this time, Hector raised a hand for silence to continue his explanation.

"Unfortunately, Apostle is a newly made GUILT that I had created, so it is immature at its state. But as it matures, it will become stronger than Savato and Bliss combined!" He said with a devilish chuckle.

"It not only ceases his 'Healing Touch' abilities, but it's like the feeling of little Death himself, Savato. The quickness of Kyriaki's blessed blades. Tetarti's poison. And let us not forget about Mercer's Neo-GUILT… " He added, smiling as he imagined most of the GUILTs combined together as one, powerful GUILT.

"…and the exhilaration of Bliss!" He exclaimed, although not telling them he had also added more tweaks into the GUILT. More cheers erupted, and this time, they dined with a sense of victory.

OoOoOoOoOo

**Four Hours Later…**

All the exhausted surgeons and nurses said their farewells to Elysium and Hope Hospital before entering their respectable ambulances, transported back to Caduceus.

Angie slowly walked towards room 248, her legs weighing her down as she tried to head towards the room, longing to see Derek, even if he didn't remember her.

She walked to the elevator and waited for it to open when she pressed the button, chuckling as she had always used the stairs instead. But she was far too exhausted to climb all of it.

The elevator door opened with a loud 'ding!' as she entered and saw a man wearing a black robe, an unusual thing to see when a visitor came to the hospital. They usually wore casual jeans or something.

Angie just shook the thought out and walked in, standing on the other side of the elevator. She was just about to click on the button to her destination when she noticed the man was also headed there, since the button glowed a light orange.

She waited for awhile in silence until another 'ding!' was heard and the two exited from the elevator, which admitted two more surgeons who greeted Angie, who held her back from her destination as they spoke to her about some matters that didn't quite process thoroughly to her.

The man in the robe was far ahead of her as she walked as well, noticing that he was always ahead of her, as if heading to the same room.

She didn't find out until later that he WAS heading to the same room.

Angie blinked in surprise when she saw the man look both sides before entering room 248 and closed it quietly behind him. Angie raised a suspicious eyebrow before going to another room across from it. Luckily, it was one of her patients, so it was fine that she was waiting in there.

The patient quietly greeted Angie, who greeted her back. She explained that she needed to wait in her room for awhile, and the patient simply nodded with a weak smile before falling asleep.

Angie watched through the closed blinds at the door, waiting for the man to leave.

OoOoOoOoOo

Derek felt something enter his mouth, down his throat as his brain took it that it was a liquid for him to consume. The moment it entered his system, he felt quite at peace, feeling coolness spread from his chest to the rest of his body. He felt relaxed for the next four hours, unconscious and away from his nightmare.

That ended up not lasting very long when a man in a black robe entered the room with a syringe in his hands. He walked forward and injected the strange syringe into his arm before leaving quietly, not noticing the nurse watching him walk away with a triumph smile.

The moment the syringe entered his system, the coolness and relaxing feel changed to a stinging pain that spread over his body, causing him to wake up and start yelling in pain. Angie immediately entered and gasped at Derek thrashing around in the bed, yelling out loudly.

She slammed her fist against a red 'emergency' button, which would send every surgeon and nurse to immediately check the room that the button had been pressed on through their pagers.

Within a few minutes, Tyler, Sidney, Leslie, Robert, Naomi, and Adel burst in, all in unison when they saw each other running towards the same room. They saw Derek continuously flailing around as Angie tried to push him down against the bed, doing her best to calm him and stop him from breaking anything in the room.

"What happened!" Dr. Hoffman asked, hurrying forward as he examined the still thrashing patient. The others held his arms, legs, and torso down, letting Robert to check and Angie to slump against the wall to the floor.

"Someone get the Chiral Reading machine!" Robert yelled as he put an ear to Derek's chest, listening for a heartbeat since the heartbeat monitor had crashed to the floor from Derek's thrashing.

_Ba-dump…. Ba-dump…... Ba-dump….._

Robert's eyes widened at Derek's slow heartbeats, the he put two fingers on his neck, checking for a pulse just in case his hearing was just playing trick on him. Sure enough, it was the same speed as what he heard and he bit his lip in frustration.

Leslie came back in with the machine, which they immediately attached onto Derek and watched the screen. It showed positive for GUILT. Two things seemed odd about the whole thing though.

One: The patterns were….quite odd, they couldn't recognize the pattern, therefore they didn't know which GUILT had Derek pinned down.

Two: The machine couldn't pick up where the GUILT was coming from, but, instead, showed the whole body.

"The whole freaking body!" Tyler yelled out his question in surprise.

"Like I said, there's a chance the GUILT is in the brain, controlling him by the nerves." A voice said as the door creaked open to reveal Victor, who had heard the commotion from outside while he was passing by.

"This isn't going to be easy." Victor sighed as he shook his head. "But if I'm on the case, it's as good as solved!" He growled as he stared at the readings on the machine.

Derek looked around from side to side, watching the surgeons examine him before his vision grew blurrier and blurrier, soon passing out as the man listened for his slowing heartbeat growing dimmer and dimmer….

"Tch…" Robert narrowed his eyes as he took a step back, making all the surgeons look at him with quizzical expressions, wondering what the elder surgeon was thinking.

"Bring him to the O.R. We'll be performing another surgery immediately."

"Understood!"

OoOoOoOoOo

_Derek blinked his eyes, his vision blurred as he stared ahead until his eyes adjusted to the bright, white light. He sat up, noticing that it was completely white and blank. This is something Derek would expect once he died, entering 'Limbo.' _

_His eyes casted downwards as he remembered his father's death, instantly feeling regret and shame filling up inside him._

"_I could have saved him…" Derek whispered, sitting up as he felt tears sting his eyes. _

"_I could have noticed that he was in pain…" He continued, blaming himself over and over again._

"_I could have noticed that and told the doctor…" The tears fell freely down his cheeks, glad that no one could see him cry silently by himself._

…_By himself… All alone…_

"_I could never let Angie see me like this…" Derek said in a wavering voice as it began to crack when a sob came up his throat. _

"_Dad… Everyone I had forgotten about…" He said quietly, thinking- no, __**hoping**__, it would reach someone and tell them how sorry he was._

_How sorry he was for being too weak to protect anyone from pain._

_How sorry he was for always hiding his feelings, especially from someone he loved… and dear lord, he couldn't even remember her name, appearance…or anything… _

_And especially how sorry he was for not expressing his feelings before it was too late. _

_ Derek was about to fall back and let himself just sit there for eternity, or until he died as a matter of fact, until he felt a large throbbing pain on his chest, which he quickly gripped his hand on. _

_He gasped as a sharp pain seemed to be prodding at his heart before it stopped, his eyes glazing over as whites flashed in his eyes._

"_Wh-What's this…?" He asked himself, staring at the blurring whites flashing quickly, making him unable to identify anything. _

"_Slow down…" Derek continued to whisper, tears pouring down his glazed eyes as he stared at the flashing pictures._

"_I want to remember… I want to remember my life…" He reached a hand out to touch the pictures and was surprised when a ripple went through it when his finger prodded it._

_The pictures came slower and slower… eventually enough for Derek to know what the picture was showing…_

_A picture of him with a uniformed nurse who takes care of him… Nurse Angie!_

"_Why is she apart of my memories from before?" He asked, raising a questioning eyebrow. As if replying to his question, he remembered what his mother had said during her visit…_

"_**Listen Derek, that woman cares about you a lot… please treat her well."**_

"_**What do you mean?"**_

"_**I won't say anything yet, but you will find out sooner or later, hopefully you will regain your memories."**_

_Derek frowned as he remembered her words. _

"_Then… She was part of my life back then…" He muttered, putting a hand on his chin. "But… how were we connected?"_

_He glanced back at the picture and stared at himself, mentally choking himself for not realizing it at first._

_The picture before him showed himself and the nurse… but he was wearing a lab coat, a hospital crest… It was obviously showing he was a doctor!_

_His eyes widened as realization dawned upon him, just then remembering the promise he made after his father's death, Alexander's death..._

"_I… don't want anyone else to experience… the same pain I had gone through…" Derek whispered, his eyes wide as he recited the same words that kept him going on with life… his reason to live. _

"_I want to wipe off so-called 'incurable diseases' off of this world." _

* * *

Bleh, feeling extremely tired. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I really, really, REALLY love reading your reviews, so keep them coming to support me! See you in chapter six!


	6. Unforgiven Sin

Well, I got this chapter out… somehow. This will be a VERY boring but [somewhat] vital chapter, so please read it! I tried to skip through some most familiar parts so you just get the big idea of it. Please just read to understand it x] Alright then, have fun!

* * *

Don't Forget About Me

Chapter 6: Unforgiven Sin

"Anesthesia is taking effect." Angie said, repeating the same words she said the first time they operated on Derek. Sure, she said the same words countless times for every patient, but Derek was by her side, operating on the patient, not _being _operated on. This was different.

Surprisingly, all the surgeons that knew of Derek's conditions were all going to operate with Leslie, Angie, and Victor to hand out tools that the surgeons needed necessary. Victor would also watch the reactions and try to find a cure to whatever GUILT was in him.

Suddenly, the O.R. doors opened, causing everyone to whirl around in frustration, about to pounce on the person who wasn't supposed to know about Derek's surgery. However, a black-haired man wearing a black vest, black silky pants, a black tie, and a white lab coat stepped in, causing everyone to gasp in surprise.

"…Professor Blackwell… What brings you here today?" Sidney asked, raising an eyebrow at the professor as he closed the doors behind him.

"To help Victor find a cure for Derek, of course." Kenneth Blackwell replied, a small, sympathetic smile crossing his face.

"I heard it from Dr. Miller who got the information from Naomi. He told me to come help right after she left on her plane. Sorry I'm late." He said, already putting on some gloves and a mask.

"Well, the more geniuses there are the better." Victor stated, growing impatient as they left Derek to just lay there with nothing happening.

"Let's begin the operation!" Tyler exclaimed, just like Derek would before an operation.

"Antibiotic Gel." He said, putting a hand out as it immediately was placed to his hand. He applied the gel on his forehead once more before placing it back and receiving a scalpel. He cut it open again and widened the incision, revealing more aneurysms in his brain as he stepped back.

"Hmm… this GUILT seems to like bringing out aneurysms, doesn't it?" Adel said behind his surgical mask, knowing fully well how annoying aneurysms can get.

Greg, Adel, Cybil, and Sidney immediately began to take care of the aneurysms as Robert, Stephen, Tyler, and Naomi stepped aside, waiting for the first four surgeons to finish their part until they would step in.

The surgeons kept working on the aneurysms as more came after they finished some. It was like taking out one and two more coming back in, but with the cooperation and speed of the first four surgeons, the aneurysms were slowing down in their attack.

Then aneurysms stopped coming back altogether.

"Let's wait for a moment, see if the GUILT gives us more to deal with before it comes." Victor said, folding his arms as everyone stared intently. Fortunately or unfortunately, they didn't have to wait long.

Within a few minutes after finishing the aneurysms off, Derek's vitals plummeted down to ten before they heard the monotonous sound of a flat line.

"Get a defibrillator now!" Tyler yelled as Leslie dashed to the other side of the room and handed Tyler the defibrillator as he immediately stood above Derek.

"Charging to two-hundred…!" He began, rubbing the pads together.

"…Clear!" He yelled as he slammed them onto Derek's chest and his vitals came back up. Adel immediately brought up his vitals up with syringes.

Right after Derek's vitals were brought up, the Chiral Reader machine flared up, causing everyone to look at it confusedly. They read the machine in shock as it showed his lungs and the patterns read 'Kyriaki'.

Adel quickly applied antibiotic gel and made an incision on his chest, the other three watching the incision in his head.

"_What gives our lives value?" _

_**(…The quickness of Kyriaki's blessed blades…)**_

_**"This... is mankind's first sin. Man created swords to kill, and was in turn killed by swords. Don't you see? Man has always sought ways to achieve death."**_

Adel quickly sutured the lacerations created by the Kyriaki and used the ultrasound as he cut and used the laser on them. Four baby Kyriaki had been quickly taken care of by Adel as he finished them off, waiting for the large Kyriaki to come out.

However, it never came. They waited and waited and just stared at the now normal lungs until the Chiral Reader flared up again, now showing his liver. Adel sutured up the incision he made as he let Sidney make another incision.

"_Dreams… feelings….?"_

_**(…And let us not forget about Mercer's Neo-GUILT…)**_

_**"You possess the gift of the Healing Touch... yet you refuse to use it effectively. Are you content with just saving people's lives? Have you ever considered what lies beyond that? I have. I'm about to change the world! Reformation is impossible without firm belief!"**_

Nous was waiting from them as he widened the incision, staring at the familiar spore-like tumor. Luckily, Sidney had a pretty good memory and took care of the GUILT easily. A grin was on his face when he watched the GUILT wither away as he injected syringes to keep his vitals up.

That grin quickly disappeared as they stared at the annoying Chiral Reader again, now saying it was in the pancreas with the most annoying GUILT in the world: Triti. Greg was forced to treat it as he made an incision with a pissed off grumble.

"Why do I have to treat this again…?"

"_When one dies, those two die as well…"_

_**"For decades, the world's governments have financed the creation of biological weapons. Airborne viruses that calcify the organs of their victims, developed for war. Yet those same governments are surprised when such weapons are used against them."**_

The Triti kept multiplying as Greg messed up with the so-called 'pattern' of the GUILT. This GUILT was the longest to eradicate as Greg took out the thorns, cut around it, and extracted the annoying little triangle. He managed to finish it with a loud, irritated sigh.

The Chiral Reader flared up again, making every sigh irritably. The GUILT causing other GUILT to form into the body was really annoying, but also scary. It read that it was in his lower intestine with Paraskevi. This time, Cybil went to confront the GUILT that almost took her life as she made an incision.

"…_If I had just watched him more closely..."_

_**"In young forests at the dawn of time, plants were born with the ability to kill humans. ...Such simple, perfect organisms. Do you understand the meaning of such toxic flora? They demonstrate that all creation seeks an end to mankind."**_

Adel had to keep filling Derek up with syringes as Cybil used the laser and sliced the little worms into smaller pieces before extracting them. It was right before the heart before Cybil caught it by the tail and extracted it after it was paralyzed.

A sight of relief was let out as she closed the incision and stepped back, wiping sweat from her brow. Yet again, the same sound from the same machine. They looked at it and a frown formed on all of their faces. Pempti was in the lungs.

"…_Would I have been able to save him?"_

_**"Mankind's greed has no ending... You continue to consume until even your host is laid waste. Is survival that important? ...So important you would trade it for the earth's destruction?"**_

The GUILT that took Secretary Anderson's life… Robert gritted his teeth as he stepped forward, pushing the other surgeons out of the way as he grabbed a scalpel and making an incision after using the antibiotic gel.

"Is this new GUILT creating all of the GUILT and Neo-GUILT?" Tyler asked, his eyebrow twitching as Robert finished the Pempti off with the laser. "I mean, sure, these ones are easy, but… really now…" He muttered as the Chiral Reader machine flared up once more, this time with Tetarti in the liver.

"_Would I have been able to let him continue with his dreams?"_

_**(…Tetarti's venomous poison…)**_

_**"Nature mandates that mankind will eventually succumb to poison. However, humans created their own poison, called medicine. It's delusion to believe you can toxify nature to avoid your fate."**_

"Please, please, PLEASE be the LAST ONE!" Tyler yelled as Stephen stepped forward to take care of it. Cybil just sutured the incision on Derek's forehead after having no reaction up there besides the aneurysms at the start of the operation.

Stephen injected the colored serums into the right colored Tetarti, watching it dive back inside the organ and resurface awhile later, which was soon taken care of by Stephen's quick injection of the serum. They stepped back, holding their breath as the GUILT disappeared and Stephen sutured him up.

"_I heard your heart cry out for help…"_

Time seem to slow as the Chiral Reader stopped, not flaring up like it had not too long ago. It was silent; the only noise in the room was the steady beeps of Derek's heartbeat on the monitor. Just as they thought it was over, his vitals plummeted and the Chiral Reader flared up.

"Charging to two-hundred!" He yelled again before slamming them onto Derek's chest, yet again, as he yelled 'Clear!'

They turned to look at the Chiral Reader after Derek was stabilized and their eyes widened in shock. An unknown GUILT pattern in his brain… Naomi, Tyler, and Robert stepped forward with scalpels: Their role had finally come to go in the darkness.

"…_I saw the painful eyes and the fake smile planted on his face." _

With shaking hands, Tyler applied antibiotic gel on his forehead for the third time and steadied his shaking fingers as he made an incision. Upon widening the incision, their mouths gaped open wide with shock.

"…_You tell me you're all right… That everything would be fine…" _

"Wh-What the hell is this!" Angie exclaimed, breaking the shocked silence with her half scream, half-wail. They never heard the strong, tough nurse make such a sound as tears rolled down her cheeks and dripped onto the floor.

The GUILT that was before them was odd-shaped… White webs covered his brain, shaped like a star with twelve parasites around the star… Savato.

"…_but all I hear is your heart yelling 'save me…'"_

_**("The Power of Death from Savato…")**_

_**"My beautiful, perfect image of death itself... which I have deemed Savato. But what if I told you this death existed inherently inside all human DNA? I merely gave it the chance to take shape. This is the death you have denied. Our guide to the truth."**_

"What! This is crazy! One Savato is enough trouble!" Tyler exclaimed as he began to cut the webs with the scalpel, which dissolved after he cut the web off. It was easier with the amount of surgeons to cut the webs with Leslie, Angie, Victor, and Kenneth to give and get more scalpels.

After they had cut down the star-shaped web three times, Tyler began to use the laser on Savato's coat as Naomi used the laser on the mini-Savato. The other surgeons all began working at once now, crowding around Derek's brain as they began using the laser on as many Savato as they could work on…

"…_I did nothing but watch you cry out for help and slowly die…"_

"Man… this is tiring…" Greg muttered as he used the laser on the last bit of coat one of the Savato had left. To everyone's surprise, they sliced at the Savato they were working on at the same time… some of the surgeons fighting on two Savato.

They did the same again when they had to fight off Savato's coat one more time, which caught them by surprise again when they sliced at the same time. They injected the serums Victor handed out and watched with victorious grins as the twelve annoying parasites vanished from view.

"Wait a minute… If what we were fighting was Savato, how come the Chiral Reader couldn't identify it?" Tyler asked, raising an eyebrow before they glanced at the brain again and their mouths dropped in shock as his question was immediately answered.

"…_I was unable to let you continue with your values of life."_

_**("…combined with the Exhilaration of Bliss…")**_

"_**The ultimate combination of most of my future GUILTs together… What allows me to enter the body… The body of Adam. I am Bliss, the ruler of Nature… and I alone am the one alone who will show you worthless doctors the true meaning of life. The way Mother Nature intended us to be. Humankind's true destiny."**_

"What the hell…?" Tyler asked as he saw a web form, but it looked like the normal web a normal Savato would put up.

A Paraskevi body with the armor coating and abilities of Savato came out, worming its way around the web. Triti formed around the web and diverticula formed by Tetarti appeared. Pempti came out as well, but without its fluid. As the Paraskevi-Savato moved, it attacked like Kyriaki with its sharp tail.

"Don't tell me…" Sidney began, the corner of his lip twitching.

"Please don't tell me this is Bliss…" Greg muttered, finishing Sidney's sentence.

"What? How do you-" Angie began before she was cut off.

"Because… Bliss was researched before the GUILT strains by Delphi... or Adam… or rather, Bliss…" Professor Blackwell explained, sighing.

"That's how they-we." He corrected himself, looking at Naomi, who visibly shivered. "…formed the GUILT… by the workings of Bliss… who took over Adam's body."

"Treat everything like you would usually do… With the Paraskevi-Savato-Kyriaki body, you laser the tail, slice the body, and inject the Savato serum." Blackwell said as he went to pass out tools for everyone.

The surgeons sighed as they performed on the GUILT they had done earlier… And forcing Greg to do Triti… AGAIN.

"What the HELL, guys!" Greg growled, taking out the thorns. "I will SOOO kill you guys later!"

"_I helped end your short life with Mom… Because of my carelessness and selfishness."_

"Be careful, we're dealing with the brain here!" Robert growled at Cybil, who cut the Paraskevi GUILT too hard, causing a deep laceration. She immediately sutured it, brought his vitals up with a syringe, and continued eradicating it.

The atmosphere was thick with tension as the surgeons worked; sweat dotting their brow as they carefully maneuvered through his brain. Heavy breathing was heard through the room, which was silent except for the beeping of the heart monitor and the sounds of tools clanging from the metal tray.

"…_and from your death, I became someone to make you proud of me…"_

The surgeons finished most of the GUILTs, having Triti and the Paraskevi-Savato-Kyriaki parasite left. However, the other surgeons decided to treat the larger GUILT instead of helping Greg with his Triti, since they all hated it so much, which made Greg curse at them from where he worked.

Before the other surgeons helped them out, Robert, Naomi, and Tyler had eradicated the Kyriaki part of the body, the tail now missing and lacerations were coming in less. Cybil was still working on the Paraskevi part of the body and took the small parts out onto the tray.

Now all was left was the Savato part of the body. It was one tough, little parasite as they used the laser on it, cut it, and injected the serum. All of those procedures had to be redone more than four times, which exhausted the surgeons, even though Greg was the only one working on Triti still… which was also in its highly-mutated form.

"…_I became someone who would do their best to atone for their sins…" _

The Savato began to weaken, its movements slower than before as it slowly roamed around. The other surgeons beside Greg began to finish up on the group of mini-Savato that was still roaming around in a frenzy. The Savato body was now alone, roaming around so slowly that it seemed as if the parasite had grown old within a few minutes during the operation. Tyler cut the parasite and was just about to inject the black serum until the parasite's speed increased, shocking them.

Robert narrowed his eyes, knowing that at this point, the Healing Touch needed to be used. To slow down time and eventually stop it from movement altogether. Naomi's Healing Touch wouldn't work, since hers was to bring its vitals up with every thing she did right to cure the patient. Derek's was to slow time, the perfect one against Savato…

"…_I became someone you can forgive when they pass on to the afterlife…"_

Robert closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the eyes of the surgeons turn to him, besides Greg of course, who was too busy to even look. His… Healing Touch. Robert could feel pressure against his shoulders and pain in his chest. When he had heard of Derek's Healing Touch to slow down time, he was surprised. Not only did he find another surgeon with the power of Asclepius, but that same surgeon had the same Healing Touch as he.

"To slow down time." Robert said aloud, his eyes still closed as he exhaled the breath he had been holding. "To save Derek." He whispered, finally opening his eyes and already imagining that shape he used to use all the time to activate his Healing Touch. Unlike Derek and Naomi, Robert didn't imagine a star, which was pretty unusual.

"…_To be forgiven…"_

As he looked at the psycho parasite roaming around like crazy, an image began to slowly form in his line of vision. Something covered it, as if warning him not to use it yet. But he had to. He had to do it now to finish off Savato… then help Greg finish with Triti.

Finally, the mist cleared, as if the will to save his colleague - no, his _friend_ - was enough to change its mind. In front of Derek's brain, Robert imagined an hour glass with a staff piercing through it. It was hard to trace, but it was easy to imagine. The staff was representing Asclepius. It was the Staff of Asclepius after all. The hour glass was quite self-explanatory, it meant time – to stop it and slow it down. The image burned in his memory and vision, the memory of his past suddenly flashing through his mind. It seemed like he was reliving his past, but it actually only took a mere second.

"…_For my Unforgiven Sin."_

* * *

My bad, it took so long. Its just, its November, and it's my deceased brother's birthday /:

Anyway, thanks for continuing to R&R :] I hope to see you in the next chapter! I know I made some errors, but I don't spot any at the moment DX I just wanted to get this story out to you all ASAP. Well, see you then :]


	7. Pain of Memories

Chapter seven! Whooot! xD It has been a great pleasure of mine to create a story for others to read :] Just to let you all know, my one-shot is still in progress, but I'll inform you when it is done! I also have another story in progress. Hehe, I'm on a roll with my imagination! xD Also, this is kinda like a filler chapter AND its short! Sorry Dx Anyways, enjoy!

* * *

Don't Forget About Me

Chapter 7: The Pain of Memories

"Dr. Hoffman!" A yell rang out throughout the hospital as footsteps were heard rushing through the hallway, echoing against the walls to reach the surgeon that the voice was calling for. Robert turned, hearing the call and looked down the long hallway to see his apprentice run up to him and bend over, putting his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

"Doc… Doctor, the Director wants to see you." He said finally, straightening himself up as he dusted his lab coat off in a proud manner.

"I see… Thank you, Greg." Robert said as he turned to head to the Director's office. He walked briskly down the hallway, the young surgeon now out of his sight as he walked into the elevator and waited to get up to the room. Once he heard the 'ding!' sound of the elevator, he walked out, his hand outstretched towards the knob to the door as he opened it, revealing a man inside.

"Director…" He said with a formal bow before he looked up again. "What do you need of me?"

"Don't be so formal, Robert." The man said, the back of his chair facing him. "We are friends, after all." He said as he turned around with a smile on his face.

"I know, Richard… But, we're at work. What is it that you needed?" He asked, allowing a small, nervous smile onto his face.

With that question, Richard's smile was completely wiped off of his face. "Robert, you do know about my wife's condition…correct?" He asked instead, resting his elbows on the desk and rested his chin on his hands.

"Yes… with that unknown disease, correct?" Robert asked, raising an eyebrow. "It is extremely unfortunate. However, what is it about this case you wanted to talk about?"

"I… will assign you to her." He said, letting out a painful breath.

"But, Richard! You can't! I-" Robert began, before Richard interrupted him.

"You're our best surgeon… We can't ask Caduceus… They already have their hands full with that new Influenza." He said, shaking his head.

"I… understand." Robert said, sighing as he turned and walked away, the weight of responsibility heavily resting on his shoulders as he rubbed his forehead, wondering what he would do now…

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Robert awoke, rubbing his eyes as the bright sun burned his eyes. He got out of bed and changed into a white shirt and black pants with his white lab coat over his shirt. He absent-mindedly trudged to his bathroom, putting toothpaste on his toothbrush and brushing his teeth as he stared at himself at the mirror. Wrinkles and snowy white hair. "You really are lookin' old, huh, Robert?" He muttered through the toothpaste at himself.

Robert washed his mouth and got out of the bathroom, his dull eyes scanning his empty, dark house. His lonely, lonely house. "And if I don't save her, Richard will have to…" He thought, but shook his head. "No, I shouldn't be thinking like that. I will save her…"

But even he did not believe his own words.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Robert drove to work, though it was dangerous when he was hardly paying attention to reality, to what was happening to his surroundings. Rain pounded against his car, his windshield whipping away the rain. Even with in this dangerous, slippery road and him hardly paying attention, he managed to park his car in the parking lot in front of Hope Hospital… somehow... He walked through the doors, hardly listening to the hushed whispers of his arrival.

He headed directly to a room… Room 248. "Hello, Ms. Anderson." Robert said as he closed the door quietly behind him. She looked at him and smiled weakly. She has had the case of amnesia, but something was odd about it. It wasn't any ordinary amnesia, but rather another problem happening to cause the illness.

"You're scheduled for surgery within a few hours… Do you wish to speak with anyone?" He asked, faking a smile.

"Yes… May I speak… with my husband… Richard?" She asked, her exhausted eyes searching his, a small spark of recognition could be found.

"Of…of course." Robert said, a bit baffled. The moment he walked out, he briskly walked to Richard's office, thinking through what she had just requested from him.

"_This doesn't make any sense… How does she remember Richard? I thought all of her memories had been wiped since…" _Robert paused, gritting his teeth as he remembered the scene of where she had collapsed.

"Richard!" Robert yelled, startling the Director when he burst through the door with a sudden burst of energy. "She… she remembers you!" He exclaimed, his eyes filled with shock reflecting on his friend.

"What! That's absurd! She shouldn't have remembered…" Richard trailed off, confusion yet a shard of joy within in tone as he looked down.

"That means she's getting better, right?" Robert asked, excitement in his tone, like a little kid who had just discovered something new. "That means the operation will be smooth! We just need to take care of the last of those aneurysms."

"Wait, we can't jump to conclu-" Richard began, but Robert was already heading out, ready to begin the operation. Richard's arm was outstretched towards the open door, where the empty hallways stood before him, and the sounds of Robert's footsteps fading away.

"….. I'm sorry, Robert… My dear Cindy… I'm sorry that I'm too powerless to save you guys from pain… and death…" Richard whispered, tears forming in his eyes as he heavily fell back on the chair, bent over with his head in his hands.

"I'm so sorry…"

OoOoOoOoOo

"Anesthesia is taking effect." Nurse Fulton said, having no doubt that Robert, being the best surgeon in Hope Hospital and capable of becoming a member of Caduceus, would save this patient.

"Let's begin the operation." Robert said with a calm voice behind his mask.

From the observation room, Greg and Richard watched from where they were, watching as Robert applied antibiotic gel on his wife's forehead and took the scalpel from Nurse Fulton.

"Best of luck, Robert…" Richard said, a slight hint of grief in his whisper. "We don't have a choice... He has to perform the surgery…"

Greg looked at Richard with a puzzled look.

"What are you muttering about, Director Anderson?" The young surgeon asked, his hands in his lab coat's pockets.

"Ah, don't worry about it… Let's just watch the surgery." Richard said with a fake smile.

"…Understood, Director."

Robert made an accurate and precise incision on her forehead, soon widening it to reveal one aneurysm. Robert quickly eliminated the aneurysm with ease, injecting the serum, cutting it out, placing it on the tray, connecting them together, then suturing them. An easy and well known process.

Even as after he treated that aneurysm, Robert wasn't stupid enough to close her up just yet. He knew for a fact that if it was just one, tiny little aneurysm, Mrs. Anderson wouldn't have been hospitalized for a while.

Sure enough, more aneurysms had come, larger in number and size. Robert swiftly dealt with them like he had with the others, although it took a little more time. He repeated this process many times until finally, the aneurysms stopped coming altogether. They had waited for a while, and there weren't any detected.

"Looks like it's another victory for you, Dr. Hoffman." Mary said with a smile as she handed him the sutures.

"Yeah… I'm glad it's over." Robert said, but then noticed something off about Mrs. Anderson's vitals. He injected a few syringes, confusion pulsing through his veins like throbbing beats from his heart.

"What the hell is going on!" Robert exclaimed when the vitals dropped, and Mrs. Anderson had gone into cardiac arrest. "Defibrillators!"

"I got them!" Mary exclaimed as she grabbed the defibrillators and literally shoved it into his arms.

"Charging to 200…!" He growled out, rubbing the pads together before putting it down on Mrs. Anderson's chest. Her vitals went back up, and he put syringes to bring them up to fifty.

"What caused that just now…?" Mary asked, her wide, shocked eyes looking over at Robert's stoned-faced expression.

"I don't know… I jumped to conclusion too quickly… Damn it!" He growled, balling his right hand into a fist.

"We're going to find out what's wrong, hand me the ultrasound." Robert said, feel two pair of eyes staring at him from the observation.

"I knew it…" Richard said, his eyes glistening with tears threatening to fall down as he put a hand on his face, rubbing them away as if it were just an itch.

"Knew what, Director? What are you talking about?" Greg asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "You mean, you knew this was going to happen?" He asked, now looking from Robert to Richard and back and forth.

"Not… exactly like this, Greg." Richard said as he exhaled a deep breath that he had not known that he was holding. "I only knew that something wrong was going to happen during this surgery."

"How…?" Greg asked as his eyes turned back to Robert, and see what he would do next.

However, Richard remained silent, not willing to answer his question.

Mary brought the ultrasound over, her heels clicking against the tile loudly as she hurried. Robert was about to use it over Mrs. Anderson's head when a laceration suddenly formed there, causing a sharp gasp to collect from them.

"What is this! How is this possible?" Robert exclaimed, gawking at the laceration that had appeared out of no where. Dr. Hoffman sutured the laceration, but then another one came, but now from a different location.

"What is causing this…?" Mary asked, biting on her lip anxiously as she looked at the machines with Mrs. Anderson's readings to her opened forehead. Robert ignored her words, using the ultrasound over the laceration. It was unsuccessful for a few times until a shadow was seen. "What the… What the hell is that!" He exclaimed, his fear-filled eyes glancing over to Greg and Richard. Richard gritted his teeth, looking away as he rested his arm against the wall, refusing to let them fall… refusing to show his weakness.

"Ngh… What are we supposed to do…?" Robert exclaimed before grabbing a laser and trying it on the shadow that kept moving to improvise. The only thing that happened was Mrs. Anderson's vitals lowering, so he used the scalpel, slicing the shadow. It surfaced, and his hands shook, surprised that something had happened. He tried slicing it again, but this time, nothing happened.

Robert grabbed the laser and chased it with the beam, soon killing it.

"It… worked?" He asked, dumb-founded, as his shaking hands handed the laser back to the tray. But his relief was not yet over. More lacerations formed, and now Robert was at a loss. Instead of saying anything anymore, he simply performed the same thing he had earlier, defeating the two shadows that had come as reinforcements.

When they had stopped coming, he let out a sigh of relief, and began to turn back to hand the laser back.

However, he couldn't be too happy yet.

Larger and more lacerations came at once, making an almost X shaped laceration with another laceration through it.

"What is this!" Robert exclaimed, his eyebrow twitching. He used the ultrasound and found a large version of the shadows he had defeated earlier.

"What did they do, fuse?" He growled, using the same process, but taking longer on it. When it had finally disappeared, he sighed.

"Mary, sutures, _please_." Robert said, putting a hand out.

"Yes, right aw-" She began, before the heart-beat monitor blared a monotonous sound.

"Crap! She's in cardiac arrest again!" Mary yelled, grabbing the defibrillators and handing them to Robert.

"Charging to 300…!" He said as he rubbed the pads together.

"CLEAR!" He yelled, slamming them onto Mrs. Anderson, who's vitals came back up again. Robert injected syringes, confusion and fear all over his face.

"What is causing this…? She should be fine now!" He said, his shoulders feeling heavy.

Unfortunately, his question was answered immediately. Three triangles with thorns piercing through them.

"Wh… What is this?" Mary asked in a low voice, as if saying it aloud would cause someone to catch this disease.

"Scalpel." Robert said with a slight shake in his voice. Mary obeyed quietly, handing him the medical tool he asked for. He tried cutting around the triangle like a tumor. With that unsuccessful attempt, he tried to drain it. However, it wasn't close to a tumor, so the Powell Procedure couldn't do anything to the weird bumps.

He tried picking them up with the forceps, but it had no affect whatsoever, not even a flinch. The only thing Robert did was lower Mrs. Anderson's vitals, which he quickly tried to bring up with his syringe.

Robert took the forceps and plucked out the thorns, which actually worked. He cut out the triangles and picked them up as well, placing them on the tray. Mrs. Anderson's vitals lowered… and kept lowering as Robert panicked, still doing the same thing as he did earlier.

A white gas emitted from one of them, which Robert did not know what to do with.

"Doctor, if you use your Healing Touch, you can find out what to do!" Mary exclaimed, suddenly remembering he even had it.

Robert nodded before closing his eyes, imagining a very complicated image. An hourglass with the Staff of Asclepius stabbed through it. The image flashed before his eyes, burning into his mind as he opened his eyes, the image still before his eyes.

Immediately, everything slowed down, and Robert stared at the triangular parasite with the thorns.

"_A biological weapon made by the government in the past..."_

Those words formed in his mind, telling him about the parasite.

"_Requires to take out the thorns and cut around the triangle before taking that out as well." _

"_Yes, I know that, what about that thing!" _Robert thought impatiently, now glaring at the white gas.

"_A gas that forms more of the triangular parasite if not drained." _

Robert quickly grabbed the drain and used it on the gas that moved slowly, since he was still in his Healing Touch form.

However, even in his Healing Touch, the time he took analyzing the data paid a large price. The triangular parasite was… quick. The triangular shapes had already taken over the whole organ, and with each second, Mrs. Anderson's vitals were going down by twenty.

Robert tried to take all the thorns out before cutting the triangles, but the thorns merely reformed, and he had wasted too much time.

Mrs. Anderson's vitals had dropped down to zero, the heartbeat monitor blaring a monotonous, grieving sound.

Robert was taken out of the Healing Touch mode and stared at the lifeless body, the body he was supposed to heal of the disease to let the host continue living her life with her husband.

"I… I have failed…" He whispered, dropping to his knees. "Even with the Healing Touch, I…"

"CINDY!" A loud, grieving yell overpowered his depressed mutter.

Robert looked over at Richard, his fists balled and slamming against the observation room's window. Tears slid down his face as he yelled her name over and over again, as if trying to wake her up.

"NOOO!" He screamed one last time before resting his head against the window and slumping down to the ground, fainting from the shock.

"Director!" Greg exclaimed, already reaching for the doctor. "He fainted!" He informed the other two as he lifted the old man by the arm and put it around his shoulders to support him.

Other surgeon and nurses came to get the body, their eyes sympathetically looking at Robert as he was on his knees, tears silently streaming down his eyes in the agony of his friend's voice and his failure.

A few days later…

_Knock. Knock._

"Come in." Richard said, clasping his hands together.

Robert came in, looking worse than he had in the operation room. His shoulder were down, his head bowed, slouching as he came in.

"Director. I… I no longer will stay as the Head Surgeon of Hope Hospital." He said, coming forward as he placed his work identification and a scalpel on his desk.

"Robert, we need you. There are other operation you can do, we just didn't have enough information for this one." Richard said, his eyes widening. "Who will take care of Hope Hospital for me when I leave?"

"Leave? You're leaving?" Robert asked, his eyes widening.

"Yes. To Caduceus. Their former director had died from a fatal gunshot through his heart and have asked me to take his place. You will be Director of Hope Hospital starting tomorrow." Richard said, standing up as he handed his items back.

"I… Fine. But I will no longer perform surgery again." Robert said as he walked out of the room without another word.

OoOoOoOoOo

"Dr. Hoffman." Greg said, shaking the surgeon's shoulder. "Are you okay? You were just staring at Derek for a while.

"I'm fine. Let us continue the operation." Robert said, holding back the dark memories from happening again to the World Renowned Surgeon.

"Give me the serum." He said as the black serum was placed in his hands. He injected it into the parasite that had slowed down and quickly finished off Triti to help Greg from his misery. Robert injected syringes to bring his vital up and narrowed his eyes.

However, the next thing the surgeons were about to face had them completely off-guard. Who would have known that Asclepius's symbol was behind all these diseases put together with the Apostles?

* * *

Total word count: 2950. Bleh, that's all right xD Anyway, sorry it took so long. I was just enjoying my winter break and relaxing xD Well, that's my version of what happened to Dr. Hoffman during 'that incident that told why he never held a scalpel again.' Yeah, I always imagined it like that: failing to cure his best friend's wife. I feel kinda cruel though :X And yes, I wanted to make Dr. Hoffman special with his imaginary image to activate his Healing Touch and WHAT his Healing Touch even was :D Also, from now on, I will [kinda] reply to some reviews on the story down here because my Internet sucks and I can't always reply by private messages xD

Franaticfanafan-TC: No, its not crap advice o: That's very helpful! I'll try to get more detail on their feelings :) Thanks for reading!

TCGeek: Thanks for your concern, and I'm feeling fine now, because, well, we all have to move on, right? Thanks for your compliment, and I know what you mean. Geez, grammar and I don't work together, heh. Yeah, I was re-reading that chapter before I published it, and I was like: "Is this really… possible? Should I really publish this? …Eh, oh well." xD Again, thanks for reading and reviewing ! :] I'm glad to see that you're reading this xD

Indochine Ramera: Haha, thank you! :] I really didn't think that it would be quite… described like that xD I'm really surprised to see that you felt like you were doing the operation! Thank you for your review, I hope to see you reading the next chapter! :]

Sooo, back to the story next chapter! I hope you guys liked this one and will continue to R&R! :) See you in the next chapter!

One more thing. Happy New Years! Whoot, 2011! (:


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